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MELBOURNE (Reuters) – McLaren boss Zak Brown called on Formula One’s governing FIA 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 governing body’s President Mohammed Ben Sulayem of alleged interference into two races this week, but the FIA provided little detail about the judgements in each case and declined to comment further on them.
The FIA has also been in the spotlight over its recent conflict of interest inquiry into Susie Wolff.
Wolff, who runs the all-female F1 Academy support series, said on Wednesday 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,” he told reporters at the team principals’ press conference at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday.
“I think everyone should welcome transparency.
“Until all the unanswered questions are answered, people will continue to ask questions, so I don’t think it’s a great situation that 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 comments, 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 the outcome and raised an official complaint to the FIA.
The FIA has 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 that we know it’s been looked into independently (and) all parties have been heard,” he said.
Brown stopped short of saying he had lost confidence in the FIA’s governance. 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.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
