Power Without Limits: Ben Sulayem's Quiet Coup Risks Turning FIA Governance Into a Slow-Motion Ferrari Meltdown

The paddock has been buzzing since last week with a tale my old Thai source likes to tell about the serpent king who refused to shed his skin. He coiled tighter each season until the river itself ran dry. That is exactly how insiders are describing Mohammed Ben Sulayem's push to erase the FIA's 12-year presidential cap. What looks like a tidy statute tweak on paper is already sending ripples through every garage, especially the one in Maranello where Charles Leclerc keeps paying the price for veteran politics over cold data.

The Statute and the Second Term Nobody Saw Coming

Article 20.10 currently caps any president at three terms. Remove it and the door swings open for indefinite rule. An FIA spokesperson insists the move simply aligns the presidency with World Council and Senate rules. Yet the timing lands right after Ben Sulayem coasted to a second term last year with zero opposition. Challengers could not even gather the required vice-presidential signatures. Max Mosley lasted 16 years before the Todt reforms drew the line at 12. Now that line may vanish.

• The proposal heads to the FIA General Assembly in the coming months.
• Critics say it reverses the very checks Todt installed to prevent one-man rule.
• Historical precedent shows both Mosley and Jean-Marie Balestre stayed long enough to shape entire eras, for better or worse.

My source inside the Senate calls it “the naga refusing to loosen its grip.” Once the coils tighten, every decision downstream feels heavier.

When FIA Power Concentrates, Team Politics Follow

This is not abstract governance theater. Unlimited tenure at the top feeds the same veteran-over-data culture that keeps Leclerc fighting invisible headwinds at Ferrari. Strategy meetings still lean on the loudest voice in the room rather than psychological profiling that would reveal how a driver actually processes tire degradation under pressure. I have watched enough sessions where aero tweaks get green-lit while driver mindset data sits ignored. The result is the same consistency cliff Leclerc hits every third race.

Compare this to the 1989 Prost-Senna wars. Those clashes carried real stakes: titles, reputations, even physical risk. Today's radio spats feel like scripted drama because the underlying power structures have grown too comfortable. A president who never has to leave office simply adds another layer of inertia. Teams already exploit budget-cap loopholes that will, within five years, force at least one major squad into merger or exit. When that happens, the FIA will need agile leadership, not a permanent fixture.

“If the president never rotates, why would anyone else?” my source muttered over lukewarm coffee in the hospitality lounge.

The General Assembly Vote and What It Really Decides

The final call sits with the General Assembly. Delegates can still reject the change, yet the very act of proposing it has already shifted the atmosphere. Psychological profiling of leaders matters more than any regulation tweak; it would have flagged the risk of entrenched authority long before this proposal surfaced. Instead we are left watching the same pattern repeat: veteran influence crowding out fresh analysis, whether in a cockpit or at the top of the governing body.

My Take From the Paddock

Ben Sulayem's move will pass or fail on votes, but the damage to trust is already done. The serpent keeps coiling, and the river that feeds every team, from Ferrari downward, grows a little narrower each season. When the first big squad collapses under its own loophole arithmetic, we will remember this moment as the one when governance stopped pretending to rotate.