Ben Sulayem Scandal Drags F1 Under the Hammer As Liberty Media Eye $3.6 Billion Profit

Before the 2023 F1 season could get underway with Max Verstappen and Red Bull starting off as defending champions, the power struggle between F1 and FIA turned heads. As the Liberty Media versus Mohammed ben Sulayem gained traction after the FIA president’s social media post, new reports show that the owners of F1 are ready to sell the sports’ rights. Eyeing a massive profit, the American owners of F1 have reportedly decided to get done with the deal before the new season begins.

After the recent talks of selling Formula 1 were brought up, the sport was valued at $16 billion. Later on, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, agreed to match the valuation and upped it with $20 billion. However, Mohammed ben Sulayem called the valuation “inflated” and angered the higher-ups of Liberty Media. And as a result, the battle of supremacy began.

Amid all this, German media outlet Sport 1 has reported, “Liberty Media is quite interested in returning the rights acquired in 2017 for around eight billion dollars in order to make a high profit.” 

The American mass media company bought the sport’s commercial rights for $4.4 billion dollars. And now, willing to sell them for $8 billion, they are probably looking at a $3.6 Billion profit.

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Liberty Media were in charge of the sport for the last six years and during this time, they not only increase its value but also made it a lot more popular in America. As the reports have come out about the sport possibly being sold, no potential buyer has been selected as of now.

Besides selling F1, Liberty Media wants to get rid of the current FIA president

As the power struggle continued to escalate, Liberty Media reportedly tried to end it all for good. After Mohammed ben Sulayem’s public conduct, the F1-FIA relationship took a hit as the American company was everything but happy. Now, as things stand, they want to get rid of the top man in the FIA.

According to Sport 1, “Liberty wants to get rid of the quick-tempered and uncomfortable Bin Sulayem. The Brit David Richards (70) as the new FIA President could therefore represent a compromise.”

“The former team boss of Benetton and BAR should not be averse and is already in the starting blocks. But for that you would first have to be able to prove Ben Sulayem’s real misconduct,” the outlet further reported.

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With a few weeks to go for the new season, it’ll be interesting to see how things turn at the last moment. Will F1 get a new owner? Will FIA have a new president? Only time will tell.