The FIA’s head of single-seater racing, Nikolas Tombazis has responded following questions over the place the cash raised by the fines imposed on drivers truly goes.
The thorny subject arose as a part of the response to Mohammed ben Sulayem’s clampdown on swearing, to not point out earlier regulatory steps regarding underwear and jewelry.
Calling on the FIA president to deal with drivers like adults, Grand Prix Drivers’ Affiliation director, George Russell, additionally requested for transparency, notably by way of the place the cash raised by fines imposed on drivers finally ends up.
The Mercedes driver, recalling the election course of in 2021 which noticed Ben Sulayem take over from Jean Todt, mentioned that drivers had been promised the cash can be channelled into grass roots racing.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Tombazis was eager to guarantee Russell and his colleagues that the cash is being reinvested within the sport.
“The FIA is just not a profit-making organisation,” he mentioned. “We do not have shareholders who’re taking a look at some numbers within the inventory alternate and hoping for share worth to go up or get extra dividends or something like that.
“I believe this query is typically barely influenced by the feelings of the second, of no matter high-quality is being mentioned and so forth,” he continued. “I realise that anybody who’s paying a high-quality is at all times barely aggravated about it and should really feel considerably aggrieved, however for positive there are such a lot of completely different ranges of tasks that you could by no means come to the conclusion that this cash is someway spent for Christmas events and so forth.
“The sum of money spent in grassroots vastly exceeds the fines gathered,” he insisted, “which I believe signifies that something that goes in there can have a constructive influence.”
Eager to stress that the cash is invested in these areas of the game that want it, he mentioned: “What I can say with absolute certainty is that fines of drivers in a single sport do not subsidise one other sport or one other class or one thing like that.
“If you happen to take a look at different initiatives, whether or not it’s our campaigns, just like the one about on-line abuse and all of the grassroots we have been speaking about earlier than, or security tasks, I imagine are noble methods of spending such cash. And this cash does contribute to that.
“There’s about €10.3 million spent on grassroots, for a lot of golf equipment, for a lot of international locations,” he added, “simply to advertise a spread of tasks of early motorsport exercise, and I believe that is essential.
“In the end, I believe the well being of Components 1 is essentially depending on the general attraction of motorsport. It isn’t simply having an thrilling grand prix, but it surely’s additionally having extra individuals who usually even do some comparatively low stage of grassroots stage of motorsport of their nation. I believe that is going to be finally useful for Components 1.
“The opposite half, after all, is with the intention to choose drivers for the long run, how drivers can develop into the ladder and have the chance to take action even when they’re perhaps not coming from a rich household, for instance. That’s what is finally the important thing goal.”
