FIA dissenters are growing louder as Mohammed ben Sulayem’s firing spree goes on

Ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, F1 correspondent Daniel Moxon notes Mohammed ben Sulayem’s ruthless power moves, Audi’s big investment news and the latest on Red Bull’s Franco Colapinto interest

The FIA president has now resorted to firing absolutely everyone who even looks at him funnily, it seems.

Last month, Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich was given the boot and Rui Marques told to step up from Formula 2 to replace him. The latter’s own replacement, Janette Tan, has now also been sacked from the F2 race director role before she could even perform it for the first time in Qatar this weekend.

Tim Mayer, one of F1’s most respected and longest-serving stewards, has also been told his services are no longer required. And they join a swathe of others who had all departed the governing body in recent months.

What do they all have in common? Falling out with, or in some cases just disagreeing with, Mohammed ben Sulayem. The situation has become so ridiculous that George Russell said this week that drivers would love to know who is being fired next. And the sad part is, he was only half-joking.

Noises of dissent are starting to be heard. Wittich started it by publicly refuting the claim made by the FIA that he walked away from the F1 race director role. And Mayer took it much further by candidly slamming Ben Sulayem in a BBC interview and warning that the FIA is “literally running out of people to do those jobs”.

The president doesn’t seem to care and is apparently comfortable with his new policy of sacking everyone he doesn’t like the look of. Even if that means the FIA is losing all the people that actually run it.

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Less than a year after buying the Sauber F1 team, Audi announced yesterday they’ve sold a chunk of it to Qatar.

We understand the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund now owns about 30 percent of F1’s worst team. Now, Audi bosses insist this was always the plan – as they would.

It’s hard not to notice, though, that this comes not long after parent company Volkswagen announced plans to shut down three factories and lay off tens of thousands of staff, amid financial woes. It’s clear Audi needed the Qatari cash to keep its F1 plan on track.

From the archive

Lewis Hamilton will be keen to race for longer tomorrow than he did at this event last year, when he beached his Mercedes at turn one after contact with team-mate Russell.

Fast fact

Both Qatar races held in F1 to date have been won by the pole-sitter, so whoever qualifies quickest today will be feeling good about their chances.

Inside track

Three crashes over the last two race weekends for Williams hot-shot Franco Colapinto has seen Red Bull cool their interest in the Argentine somewhat, in their ongoing search for a Sergio Perez replacement.