"FIA sees itself as far more than that": F1 pundit addresses cause of discontent between the governing body and Liberty Media

F1 pundit Mark Hughes recently analyzed the turbulence between the FIA and Liberty Media.

While the FIA owns the right to the sport's name and supervises all the safety measures and rules, Liberty Media deals with the team and venue contracts. While both play an important role in the sport, the matter of who holds more power and money becomes the main issue.

Speaking on The Race podcast, Hughes explained how Liberty Media and FIA have a contract that bumps up the annual fee of the governing body but removes the power of directly imposing rules and regulations, which have to go through Liberty Media's FOM organization now.

"Ben Sulayem inherited the current agreement, which was made through former president John Todt after Liberty Media first bought into F1. And in this agreement, the FIA receives a substantial fee, believed to be 100 million dollars a year, from Liberty, but as part of that agreement, it does not have the same regulatory powers it used to have. The regulations, for example, are largely now created by the FOM. And it is just implemented by the FIA," Hughes elaborated.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's current aim, according to the F1 pundit, is to bring back the level of power FIA had and also keep the annual fee consistent in the next contract.

Hughes claims that while Liberty Media sees FIA as a body that provides various services for the sport, the latter feels it is much more than that. This is where the discontent between the two parties arises.

"So they have surrendered some power for a bigger fee. Ben Sulayem does not seem happy with either the level of power or the fee and is clearly angling towards changing it in the FIA's favor for the next agreement. Liberty feels quite sanguine about whether it needs the FIA, certainly in public. In theory, it could get a serious sanction from a different government body, but they could not call it F1," Hughes stated.

"It [Liberty Media] looks upon the FIA almost as a contract providing service and for applying the rules, providing the safety framework for the cars and the venues. Whereas the FIA sees itself as far more than that," he added.

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F1 commentator feels Liberty Media should have more power in controlling the sport

A few months ago, F1 commentator David Croft stated that Liberty Media should have more power than the FIA.

“First and foremost, I’d have to stop the FIA being the rule-makers. That’s the trouble the commercial rights holder (Liberty Media) has, it’s that they don’t make the rules – they can have an influence because they have a standing on the F1 Commission, but they don’t make the rules, the FIA does. I think the time has come in F1 actually to bring the two parties a lot more closely aligned,” Croft said on the Sky Sports podcast.

Since Liberty Media acquired the sport in 2016, it has experienced unheard-of global expansion. Agreements like the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive and hosting more races in the US have helped F1's popularity massively.