Mayer confirms he is running for FIA presidency

Tim Mayer is the son of McLaren co-founder Teddy Mayer

American Tim Mayer has announced his candidacy for the presidency of motorsport's governing body, saying the FIA is suffering from a "corrosive concentration of power" and an "illusion of integrity".

The 59-year-old will stand against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who fired Mayer as a steward in Formula 1 in November.

Mayer said his decision to stand was "not personal" but, citing what he said were a series of concerns with the current leadership, added that the FIA could "do better for the member clubs of the FIA, for the motorsport community and the mobility community in general".

The FIA said in a statement that since Ben Sulayem took office in 2021 it had "taken steps... to strengthen its corporate governance policies. These policies guide the FIA's operations and ensure its rules, practices and processes are robust and transparent".

Mayer has long experience in motorsport, having worked for 15 years as a race steward in F1 and in senior leadership positions in championships in the US, including Indycar, and the Imsa and American Le Mans series sports car series.

"I can bring value to our stakeholders, whether they are small clubs in under-served regions, or whether it's the Formula 1 track," he said. "I'm equally comfortable in both places.

"And as much as I come from motorsport, I've spent the last six months educating myself on the mobility side and what that opportunity is.

"And to me, actually, that's the larger opportunity, is the opportunity to have a global impact for sustainability, for accessibility, and for safety all around the world."

Mayer said Ben Sulayem had not fulfilled the promises he made when the Emirati was elected president in December 2021.

"Mohamed ran on some very good ideas - listening to small clubs," Mayer said. "He promised that he would be a non-executive president, he promised transparency, and he has delivered on none of that. In fact, he's gone completely the opposite direction.

"We have the illusion of integrity. And what we've seen is a wave after wave of statutes changes, which are designed to concentrate power in one office, which is the exact opposite of what he promised when he was running."

The FIA said the statute changes were voted through by members through the body's "democratic process".

A spokesperson said the changes "further strengthen processes around governance and confidentiality" and "grant the nominations committee more time to examine the eligibility criteria of candidates, and help to ensure consistency and rigour in the electoral process".

They added: "The FIA presidential election is a structured and democratic process, to ensure fairness, transparency, and integrity at every stage."

Mayer also claimed that under Ben Sulayem "a distinct lack of respect (had been) shown to a number of stakeholders, whether it be the drivers in the F1 paddock or the World Rally paddock, or whether it's the teams and the promoters of the World Championships, or whether indeed it's even many of the clubs around the world".

Mayer said he would "reverse" the statute changes Ben Sulayem had "put in place to concentrate power".

He added: "We would clarify the ones that sound good, but are so vague as to be meaningless. And we would make sure that there is a proper governance structure that everybody can look at and say, 'yep, I know exactly how this is going to work and it's fair and it devolves power to the clubs'."

Mayer used as an example of the level of control Ben Sulayem is now exerting over the FIA, restrictions on the world councils for sport and mobility - the legislative bodies of the two areas of the FIA's responsibility. Members of these now have to sign stricter non-disclosure agreements that prevent discussion outside that forum.

"The two World Councils have been gagged and are not able to represent the people who elected them," Mayer said.

"They're not even allowed to say what the agenda of the World Council meetings is to the people that elected them. So how is that representative democracy?"

Ben Sulayem has trumpeted his achievements in resolving issues with the FIA's finances this year, announcing last month that it had made a profit of 4.7m euros in 2024.

Mayer said: "In reality, all that we've done is go back to pre-pandemic norms. The FIA was profitable for a decade, easily. You know, and since the FIA basically has a fixed income, all you have to do is manipulate your spending to get to a 'profitable' number.

"That's kind of nonsense, because at the same time, as a charity, getting to a 4.7m euros means your budgeting wasn't that good.

"It's a charity and should be budgeting net zero. So now he's taking that money and distributing it around to smaller clubs. OK, that's fine. And the smaller clubs deserve it. But that's not a financial turnaround."

An FIA spokesperson said it had "introduced a new financial steering model, optimised working practices and improved internal systems and controls.

"These changes include implementing quarterly internal reporting, and establishing a commercial team.

"The federation has reported a year-on-year operating result improvement since 2021, and recently reported its strongest operating result in eight years."

Mayer also referenced the series of dismissals of senior figures in the past year, including the FIA's first female chief executive officer Natalie Robyn, who left last July after just 18 months in the role.

"You look at the senior management that he hired, so many of them have now left, in particular, you know, women and diverse voices that he hired," he said.

Asked whether he was confident he would be able to muster sufficient support to make the election a contest, Mayer said: "The goal is to go to the clubs and demonstrate to them that there is a viable alternative where they can have proper access, where they will be listened to by somebody that they can trust, who's going to help them with value for their clubs, to help them build their businesses, because all of these small clubs at the end of the day are small businesses."