The most controversial proposal is one that dictates there “must not be anything in the record of the candidates standing for the election as members of the presidential list that calls into question their professional integrity”.
According to the document of proposed statutes, the reason for adding this is that such an eligibility criterion is currently absent from the FIA statutes and internal regulations.
It says that this should be in the requirements for a presidential campaign “for the sake of consistency” because it already applies to candidates standing for a number of other FIA bodies, such as the F1 cost-cap committee, and audit and ethics committees.
However, the list of presidential candidates and their teams, which are strictly defined, is monitored by the FIA’s nominations committee.
If it finds any ethical issues with a list, it would refer the matter to the FIA’s ethics committee.
Both bodies are controlled by the FIA president and his allies, following changes to the statutes made by Ben Sulayem last year.
In combination with the FIA’s code of ethics, this could appear targeted at Carlos Sainz, the rally legend who has already declared his interest in running for president in December.
The code of ethics dictates that parties of the FIA “shall avoid any conflicts of interest and must disclose any situation that could lead to such a conflict”.
Sainz is the father of Ferrari Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz, so it would in theory be easy for the ethics committee – should it be so minded – to declare that he has a conflict of interest that bars him from running for election.
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