Fine money not used for Christmas parties, says Tombazis

The FIA’s head of single-seater racing, Nikolas Tombazis has responded following questions over where the money raised by the fines imposed on drivers actually goes.

The thorny issue arose as part of the reaction to Mohammed ben Sulayem’s clampdown on swearing, not to mention previous regulatory steps concerning underwear and jewellery.

Calling on the FIA president to treat drivers like adults, Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director, George Russell, also asked for transparency, particularly in terms of where the money raised by fines imposed on drivers ends up.

The Mercedes driver, recalling the election process in 2021 which saw Ben Sulayem take over from Jean Todt, said that drivers had been promised the money would be channelled into grass roots racing.

Talking to Motorsport.com, Tombazis was keen to assure Russell and his colleagues that the money is being reinvested in the sport.

“The FIA is not a profit-making organisation,” he said. “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.

“I think this question is sometimes slightly influenced by the emotions of the moment, of whatever fine is being discussed and so on,” he continued. “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 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,” he insisted, “which I think indicates that anything that goes in there will have a positive impact.”

Keen to emphasise that the money is invested in those areas of the sport that need it, he said: “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.

“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.

“There’s about €10.3 million spent on grassroots, for many clubs, for many countries,” he added, “just to promote a range of projects of early motorsport activity, and I think that is very important.

“Ultimately, I think the health of Formula 1 is largely dependent on the overall appeal of motorsport. It’s not just having an exciting grand prix, but it’s also having more people who generally even do some relatively low level of grassroots level of motorsport in their country. I think that’s going to be ultimately beneficial for Formula 1.

“The other part, of course, is in order to select drivers for the future, how drivers can grow into the ladder and have the opportunity to do so even if they’re maybe not coming from a wealthy family, for example. That is what is ultimately the key aim.”