Mohammed Ben Sulayem re-elected as FIA president

December 12, 2025

After a tumultuous election cycle that saw many faces join and drop out, Mohammed Ben Sulayem will serve another four years as FIA president. He ran unopposed and collected 91.5% of the vote from the FIA General Assembly.

A former rally driver who starred in the Middle East Rally Championship and founded the W2RC’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Ben Sulayem has been in office since 2021. However, his presidency has been plagued by controversies regarding his handling of drama in Formula One and the WRC, such as a ban on swearing and a swath of resignations in protest of his policies.

Dakar Rally winners Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz both expressed interest in running against Ben Sulayem, the former doing so as early as 2023. However, both eventually dropped their bids to focus on developing the Dacia and Ford rally raid programs for the 2026 Dakar.

Tim Mayer, a former F1 and WEC steward until his firing, was the last opponent to withdraw when he did so in October after he was ruled ineligible under FIA election rules. All candidates are required to nominate six Vice Presidents for Sport for each region of the world (North America, South America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and Africa) as part of their campaign, but he and other potential candidates could not find anyone who met the criteria that wasn’t already working with Ben Sulayem.

Ironically, Ben Sulayem’s Deputy President for Sport is Malcolm Wilson who runs Sainz’s team M-Sport.

Also on the winning ticket are:

President of the Senate: Carmelo Sanz de Barros
Deputy President for Automobile Mobility and Tourism: Timothy Shearman
Vice Presidents for Sport
- Africa: Rodrigo Rocha
- Middle East and North Africa: Abdulla Al-Khalifa
- North America: Daniel Coen
- South America: Fabiana Ecclestone
- Asia-Pacfic: Lung;Nien Lee
- Europe: Manuel Aviñó
- Europe: Anna Nordkvist