George Russell has called for transparency from the FIA (Image: Getty)
One of the ’s most senior figures has responded to ’s concerns about where F1 driver fines are spent, insisting that the sport’s governing body ‘is not a profit-making organisation’.
As head of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, Russell raised concerns about where fines were being spent. F1 stars have been hit with significant financial penalties, some as high as £42,000 (€50,000) for race weekend misdemeanours. The FIA then reinvests this money into grassroots initiatives.
However, Russell and the other drivers have raised concerns over the governing body’s transparency. In the meantime, confidence in FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has nosedived, with and among those who have publicly criticised him.
In a frustrated interview ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2024, Russell despaired: “For us when we were hearing from the FIA a couple of years ago when they had the presidential elections, they were all about transparency.
“[They were] about where the money was going to be reinvested in terms of grassroots racing, in which we are all in favour. We just want the transparency, an understanding of what was promised from the beginning.”
The FIA did not immediately respond, but head of single-seaters Nikolas Tombazis has now addressed Russell’s comments, giving the Brit the transparency he requested. “The FIA is not a profit-making organisation,” he told .
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Nikolas Tombazis has responded to George Russell’s concerns (Image: Getty)
“We don’t have shareholders who are looking at some numbers in the stock exchange and hoping for share price to go up or get more dividends or anything like that. So all the money is spent on what is considered to be beneficial aspects, whether it is for safety, for grassroots in motorsport, or sometimes other projects which are to do with road safety.
“I think this question is sometimes slightly influenced by the emotions of the moment, of whatever fine is being discussed and so on. I realise that anyone who is paying a fine is always slightly annoyed about it and may feel somewhat aggrieved.
“But for sure there are so many different levels of projects that I think you can never come to the conclusion that this money is somehow spent for Christmas parties and so on. The amount of money spent in grassroots vastly exceeds the fines accumulated, which I think indicates that anything that goes in there will have a positive impact.
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“I think you would struggle to find projects at the FIA that don’t have some motorsport grassroots or social impact. What I can say with absolute certainty is that fines of drivers in one sport don’t subsidise another sport or another category or something like that.
“But if you look at other initiatives, whether it is our campaigns, like the one about online abuse and all the grassroots we’ve been talking about before, or safety projects, I believe are noble ways of spending such money. And this money does contribute to that.”