McLaren boss Zak Brown calls for transparency from FIA

MELBOURNE – McLaren boss Zak Brown called on the FIA, Formula One’s governing body, to be more transparent about its recent investigations, saying the sport would struggle to move on while questions remained unanswered.

The FIA’s ethics committee cleared the organisation’s president Mohammed Ben Sulayem of

alleged interference into two races

this week, but provided little detail about the judgments in each case and declined to comment further.

The FIA has also been in the spotlight over its recent

conflict-of-interest inquiry into Susie Wolff,

who is the wife of Mercedes team principal Toto. Wolff, who runs the all-female F1 Academy support series, said on March 20 that she had launched legal action against the governing body.

Brown said the cases were all very serious situations.

“I think we’re living in 2024, not 1984, which means total transparency. Everyone should welcome transparency,” he said at the team principals’ press conference at the Australian Grand Prix on March 22.

“Until all the unanswered questions are answered, people will continue to ask questions, so I don’t think it’s a great situation we’re in – that we’re three races into the calendar and we’re still talking about these issues.”

The FIA did not provide immediate comment when contacted by Reuters about Brown’s remarks, which came a day after Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton criticised the sport’s authorities for having no accountability when asked about Wolff’s legal action.

The new season has also been overshadowed by

allegations of misconduct against Red Bull boss Christian Horner

by a female employee. Horner, who denied wrongdoing, was cleared by an independent investigation while the employee was suspended.

Media have reported the unidentified woman appealed against the outcome and raised an official complaint to the FIA, which has also declined to comment on the reports.

Brown acknowledged the role of confidentiality in internal investigations, but said people in the sport needed to have confidence in the FIA’s procedures.

“We need to have the confidence that when someone brings forward an issue, we know it’s been looked into independently (and) all parties have been heard,” said Brown, whose team announced on the same day that he had extended his contract to 2030.

He stopped short of saying he had lost confidence in the FIA’s governance, while other team principals at the press conference gave strong backing to the FIA.

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur said teams had no option but to have confidence in the FIA’s internal investigations.

“Don’t ask us to have an opinion (on individual cases),” he said.

Back on the track, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went quickest ahead of world champion Max Verstappen in second practice at the Australian Grand Prix, with teammate Carlos Sainz third barely two weeks after surgery.

Leclerc clocked a best lap round the Albert Park circuit of 1min 17.277sec, 0.381 seconds clear of Red Bull’s Verstappen, who won the first two races of the season.

“It was a solid first day. Everything felt good from the start and I was comfortable in the car,” said Leclerc, who was third in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago.

“It looks good for now, but we have to wait and see how it will look tomorrow. I expect the field to be much tighter.”

Verstappen ran over a kerb late in first practice in Melbourne and damaged the floor of his car, and the team were still working on the issue when the second session started. He eventually emerged as the last driver out after missing 22 minutes and he struggled initially to make inroads on medium tyres as others switched to softs.

“Today was a little bit messy because of what happened in FP1. We had some damage to the floor and chassis, which took a bit longer to fix, meaning I had a bit of catching up to do,” the Dutchman said.

“We know what we have to focus on and we have a few things to fine-tune, but we are looking forward to qualifying.” REUTERS, AFP