His first year as FIA president has been a tricky one – and it was clear that was going to be the case from the moment Mohammed Ben Sulayem took the job.
The former rally driver was named as the next leader of Formula 1's governing body last December. Having won the election, he took over the role from Jean Todt – the former Ferrari team principal who stepped away from the role after three full four-year terms.
The start of his role came in the immediate aftermath of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which was decided in such acrimonious circumstances. But the fallout from that controversy had to take an immediate back seat from his perspective, as some more pressing matters meant his chances of a nice, easy start to the job were non-existent.
Instead, Ben Sulayem had to focus on a court case regarding the halo safety system – its inventor, Jens H. S. Nygaard, had taken legal action against the FIA over alleged patent infringement. It was eventually settled, but still represented a major challenge for the body's new top dog.
He told Autosport : "Imagine yourself being elected in the role after all these years of trying, everybody having a party on the night of the 17th [of December], then you go to the office on the 18th and 10 o'clock in the morning, the first thing you meet is your legal people and they say you have a big court case with the halo.
"We cannot talk much about it, but the feeling I had was not good. But you go on – it's huge but I'm very happy that a month ago that was cleared. It was a big burden on my shoulders, because as president, it would have affected us in a very legal, financial way. Now it's behind us, and the halo is patented to the FIA, so that's good."
Not only that, but there was also a worrying financial hole which needed plugging with urgency. "There was a financial issue that we didn't know about – we had a deficit, even before the pandemic, but I'm pleased to have cleared that," Ben Sulayem added.
Reflecting on his first year, he went on to admit that he was still learning and that the body will continue to improve over time. He declared: "It has been one year of learning and one year of studying what's going on, not just in Formula 1, but in the FIA in general.
"I don't think we can address just one regulation and leave it and then say that's it, we fixed [the sport]. We are always open to suggestions, we always learn from the drivers, we learn from the teams, we learn from ourselves. So the process of evolving is always there. It hasn't been easy. We had a few issues, but there is no blame game. I feel that, with the right people, we are in the process of improving the sport."
