FIA President Insists Fernando Alonso Deserves Better Exit from F1

Mohammed Ben Sulayem has drawn a firm line in the sand: Formula 1, he insists, cannot allow Fernando Alonso to slip quietly out of the sport in an uncompetitive car.

The FIA president, speaking at an event in Madrid, made it clear he believes a driver of Alonso’s stature deserves a very different exit.

“There is no way we can allow Fernando to leave – Alonso, a great champion – to leave just because of the circumstances,” Ben Sulayem said. “That's not the way to leave the stage. He has to be successful and then he leaves whenever he wants, not because he was forced to leave because of the performance.”

Alonso, 45, is out of contract with Aston Martin at the end of the season and has already signalled he will not rush a decision on his future, saying on Thursday that his call on whether to stay in F1 would be made “not soon”. Right now, the picture is grim. Aston Martin sit 10th in the constructors’ standings, their car off the pace and their Honda power-unit regarded as the weakest on the grid.

For a two-time world champion returning to his home country to fight in the lower reaches of the field, the contrast is stark. Ben Sulayem admitted he had sensed the Spaniard’s mood.

“I said to him, I saw him very sad, and I said, ‘Fernando, I understand, it's not acceptable that you are coming to your own country and now after two times a world champion…’”

The FIA president then revealed he had already moved earlier in the year to open the door for improvement on the engine side.

“We did something earlier, in May, legally for the team towards the engine to go and improve,” he said. “And then I said to him: ‘I am not going to tell you what we are going to do. Please tell me what you want because you are the driver and come and tell me what do you want us to do to improve these results.’”

Those remarks immediately raised eyebrows. The FIA is supposed to stand above team interests, administering the sport independently and objectively. Any hint that its president might be steering technical outcomes for the benefit of a particular team or driver touches a raw nerve in the paddock.

An FIA spokesperson moved quickly to frame Ben Sulayem’s comments. They clarified that he was referring specifically to F1’s additional development and upgrade opportunities system, known as Aduo. Under that mechanism, engine manufacturers whose power-units are judged to be more than 2% down on the class leader are granted extra chances to upgrade their designs.

“It is a comment about the Aduo process and that he hopes Fernando Alonso stays in the sport,” the spokesperson said. “That is all.”

Asked directly about the perception that Ben Sulayem might be overreaching his role, the spokesperson pushed back, pointing instead to his background behind the wheel.

“He is passionate about the drivers, having been one himself, and I really would not read too much into this.”

Passion or overstep, the message from the top of the FIA is unmistakable: Formula 1’s powerbrokers do not want to see one of its great champions bow out while mired in the midfield. Whether the machinery – and the rules that shape it – can rise quickly enough to match that sentiment is another matter entirely.