Mohammed Ben Sulayem Advocates for Fernando Alonso's Future in F1

Mohammed Ben Sulayem has drawn a line in the sand: Formula 1, he insists, cannot allow Fernando Alonso to slip quietly out of the sport in an uncompetitive car and an unhappy mood.

The FIA president, speaking at an event in Madrid, made it clear he believes a driver of Alonso’s stature should not be ushered towards the exit by poor machinery and bad timing.

“There is no way we can allow Fernando to leave – Alonso, a great champion – to leave just because of the circumstances,” Ben Sulayem said. “That's not the way to leave the stage. He has to be successful and then he leaves whenever he wants, not because he was forced to leave because of the performance.”

Alonso, 45, is out of contract with Aston Martin at the end of the season and has already said his call on whether to continue in F1 will come “not soon”. Right now, there is little joy to be found on track. Aston Martin sit 10th in the constructors’ standings, their 2026 project with Honda still on the horizon, while the current Honda power-unit is regarded as the weakest on the grid.

In front of his home crowd, that reality has bitten hard. Ben Sulayem described seeing a deflated Alonso in Spain and decided he could not stay silent.

“I will be speaking to him,” he said. “I said to him, I saw him very sad, and I said, ‘Fernando, I understand, it's not acceptable that you are coming to your own country and now after two times a world champion…’”

The FIA president then lifted the lid, to a point, on efforts already made to help Aston Martin and Honda close the gap.

“We did something earlier, in May, legally for the team towards the engine to go and improve,” he explained. “And then I said to him: ‘I am not going to tell you what we are going to do. Please tell me what you want because you are the driver and come and tell me what do you want us to do to improve these results.’”

Behind those comments sits a specific regulatory tool: F1’s additional development and upgrade opportunities system, known as Aduo. An FIA spokesperson later clarified that this is what Ben Sulayem was referring to.

Under Aduo, engine manufacturers whose power units are judged to be more than 2% down on the benchmark are granted extra scope to upgrade their designs. It is a mechanism designed to prevent any one supplier from being locked into long-term underperformance.

“It is a comment about the Aduo process and that he hopes Fernando Alonso stays in the sport,” the spokesperson said. “That is all.”

The remarks, though, raised an obvious question. When the head of motorsport’s governing body talks about asking a driver what he wants the FIA to do, critics inevitably wonder where the line sits between passionate advocacy and overreach.

Pressed on whether Ben Sulayem’s words hinted at a willingness to intervene in a way that might compromise the FIA’s independence and objectivity, the spokesperson pushed back.

“He is passionate about the drivers, having been one himself, and I really would not read too much into this,” they said.

Ben Sulayem’s tenure has already been marked by controversy over governance changes and the balance of power within the FIA. His stance on Alonso will only sharpen the spotlight. Yet his message, stripped of politics, is simple: a two-time world champion should not be shuffled off stage by a slow car and a weak engine.

Whether the regulations and Aduo levers can move fast enough to change Alonso’s mind is another matter entirely.