Mohammed Ben Sulayem has gone overboard with a series of tweets questioning Saudi Arabia’s $20 billion bid to take control of Formula 1. Liberty Media, the current owners of the F1, is now tapping the chairman of the FIA Automobile Federation in an open letter.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem calls himself on Twitter as president of the FIA ”one of the guardians of motorsport”. “We are wary of the alleged $20 billion price tag on Formula 1,” the man from the Emirates writes.
“I ask every potential buyer to use common sense and take into account the higher purpose of the sport. Come up with a clear, sustainable plan, not just a lot of money.”
Those words have gone down the wrong way at Liberty Media, the real owners of the F1. In a letter they target Ben Sulayem. “We believe that the comments made by the FIA president are an unacceptable breach of our agreements.”
Liberty Media refers to a deal from 2000 in which the FIA agreed to cede all commercial rights to F1 and to deal only with sporting regulations.
