F1 News
Russell has stern words for Ben Sulayem: 'Then confidence will increase'
George Russell has highlighted a lack of trust in the FIA's leadership. He suggested that sudden changes within the FIA organisation could have prevented requests from being fulfilled. He has some stern words for FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Lack of trust in the FIA leadership
Russell admitted it's not difficult to have a face-to-face meeting with the FIA president, but getting action from those discussions is more challenging. "I think getting things to change, or promises upheld seems slightly more challenging. So, it's maybe the FIA or the president didn't recognise how seriously we all felt. So I think that's why, over the course of 20 races this year and also even last year, we spoke about a number of topics," Russell said.
"All of the drivers feel pretty similar. We all know what we want from the sport and the direction it's been heading. We probably feel that we want to do a small U-turn on a number of topics and just want to work together with the FIA on this. That's just what we've felt has not been happening at all, at least directly from the president," he continued.
Over the past year, several high-ranking figures within the FIA have left—whether pushed or not. Sporting director Steve Nielsen, technical director Tim Goss, and CEO Natalie Robyn left. Niels Wittich is no longer the FIA Race Director in Formula 1, and Paolo Basarri is no longer the FIA's compliance officer. According to Russell, this is having a knock-on effect.
"We recognise everybody's working as hard as they can to do the best job possible. There is obviously a huge amount of change within the FIA quite regularly, so it's clearly not the most stable of places and maybe that's why it's been a bit challenging to get some of the changes that we've wanted implemented. If we feel that we're being listened to and some of the changes that we are sort of requesting are implemented, because ultimately we're only doing it for the benefit of the sport, then maybe our confidence will increase," Russell continued.
"There's a number of drivers who feel probably a bit fed up with the whole situation and it only seems to be going in, to a degree, in the wrong direction," he added. This comes after the Grand Prix Drivers' Association posted an open letter on social media where they voiced their concerns. Russell confirmed the FIA has not yet responded.