FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem suffers a horrible tragedy

FIA confirmed the death of president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's son, Saif, in a tragic car accident two days ago. Following up on the same, Ben Sulayem has requested privacy and no official statement has been released from his side.

The FIA president's son had a started his career somewhat in his father's footsteps. He was involved in motorsports from a young age and also competed in the UAE Formula 4 series in 2016-17, competing against notable drivers like Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant, who currently race in Formula 1. HHedeviated from his career path as a racing driver after that, despite having multiple top-10 finishes.

Saif Ben Sulayem was also fairly active on Instagram, and his feed reflected his passion for cars and motorsports. The majority of his posts were related to super and hypercars.

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FIA President keeps privacy after facing the tragic loss of his son

As mentioned before, whilst confirming the news, the governing body's spokesperson also revealed that Mohammed Ben Sulayem has released no official statements after the passing away of his son and has requested privacy.

Ben Sulayem took the FIA presidency from Jean Todt in 2021 and has been in the limelight because of the many changes he instituted in the sport. However, he earlier stepped down from direct duties in Formula 1's day-to-day activities. He walked away from any 'hands-on' involvement in lower level decision-making in the sport, assigning the role to Nikolas Tombazid, FIA's single-seater director.

This was part of the new 'governance framework' that Ben Sulayem had proposed earlier.

"The President’s manifesto clearly set out this plan before he was elected. It pledged ‘the appointment of an FIA CEO to provide an integrated and aligned operation,’ as well as to ‘introduce a revised governance framework’ under ‘a leadership team focused on transparency, democracy, and growth.’"

It was also revealed that a change like this in the working of the body for Formula 1 and for other motorsports overwatched by the body was planned since the beginning of Ben Sulayem's presidency.

Ben Sulayem has been the center of attention after numerous changes were introduced in the sport, including a rule which restricted any political statements from any driver while on a race weekend.