Mark Hughes: FIA president wants V8s back in F1. But it’s not his decision

A populist president trying to reverse our environmental progress? Not Donald Trump. We’re talking Formula 1. F1’s future is being shaped not only by developments in the real world but by the governance system in place since Liberty’s takeover of the commercial rights. Within that framework there’s a culture clash between the FIA and F1 which is also determining how that future is being decided.

“Ben Sulayem requested a meeting about a 2.4-litre V8 formula”

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is being thwarted in pushing through his agenda for a return to a loud, normally aspirated F1. He recently ruffled a few feathers by requesting a post-Dutch Grand Prix meeting with teams and engine manufacturers about going back to a naturally aspirated 2.4-litre V8 formula from as early as 2029. Months before we’ve even had the first race of the new ‘50/50’ electric/ICE formula, he wanted to discuss what to replace it with and when.

The meeting didn’t happen. The president had gauged accurately that there was nowhere near enough alignment of views among the teams and manufacturers to have a hope of pushing any new formula through two years earlier than scheduled (the next regs are set to run from 2026-30). This came after a similar push by the president back in April to bring back V10 engines – and to possibly even cancel the scheduled 50/50 power unit formula – failed completely.

Given that F1 is an FIA championship, long-time followers of the sport may not fully appreciate why the president cannot simply impose his will (aided by compliant FIA member clubs) as in the days of Max Mosley.

The reason is that under the terms of Liberty Media leasing F1’s commercial rights (in place since 2017), the FIA no longer has that power. The governance agreement sees the FIA take a fee from FOM (Liberty’s F1 management group) to administer the championship. But the regulations are devised by F1, not the FIA. That was true of the ground effect regs of 2022, just as it’s true of the new 50/50 electric/internal combustion regs of 2026. These are FOM regulations. The FIA just rubber stamps and administers them to ensure compliance, with some small power to tweak through technical directives to meet FOM’s stated aims.

The FIA is effectively a contractor. It owns the naming rights but no longer gets to run and decide what Formula 1 is. It can introduce reg changes on emergency safety grounds. But that’s it.

So it’s not really within the FIA president’s remit to decide what the regulations are going to be. But such is his personality, he would love to project the image that he’s in charge of it all. A return to a loud, normally aspirated F1 after over a decade of the hybrids would be immensely popular with a significant proportion of fans. That’s the part of the F1 fanbase Ben Sulayem is trying to appeal to. He’s a populist.

There’s another part of the fanbase which believes that’s all dinosaur stuff, that F1 should be at the cutting edge of automotive technology and contributing to a more environmentally friendly future.

Commercially, FOM is trying to straddle those two fanbases and to keep automotive participation, with all the investment that represents. So it’s not being combative against Ben Sulayem’s populist agenda, but it is being firm. In response to his showman rallying call of, “OK everyone, follow me, we’re going this way,” FOM has responded with, “No thanks. Not just yet. We’ll talk about it down the line.” It’s effectively their championship, not his. “Get back in your box,” is the implicit message to Ben Sulayem. “We’ll stick to our original schedule of running next year’s formula until at least the end of 2030.” Even then, when the time comes, how likely is it that FOM would agree with Ben Sulayem’s vision?

All well and good. But let’s assume for a moment that Ben Sulayem is not defeated by Tim Mayer – a much more measured man with whom FOM would probably be more comfortable – in the FIA presidential elections in December. That would have Ben Sulayem’s next term running to the end of 2030, which is when the 50/50 formula is scheduled to run until. But it is also when the current governance agreement between Liberty and the FIA expires. Theoretically, if the FIA decided it no longer wished to lease out the naming rights to the current commercial rights holder and wanted to go its own way, perhaps create its own rules once more, it would be free to do so from 2031. Or if not a split, at least a renegotiating of the governance contract.

So just because FOM currently has Ben Sulayem under control, that wouldn’t necessarily be the case after 2030. In the meantime, F1 is about to embark upon a new extreme hybrid formula, upon which its future success potentially hangs.

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