According to the BBC story, a whistleblower claims that they were told “on behest of the FIA president” to not homologate the street track ahead of last November’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix - a flagship event for F1 as it moved to promote the race itself for the first time.
This claim is included in a report, which the BBC claims to have seen, by the FIA’s compliance officer to its ethics committee.
There was a delay before the circuit was ready for inspection due to “ongoing local organiser construction works”. Thereafter, the whistleblower says they were contracted by their manager with the instruction from Ben Sulayem to find issues with the venue so it could not be declared safe. But no concerns were found.
This accusation appears to sit at odds with Ben Sulayem’s claims that he supported the homologation of the new track and that the relationship between governing body and FOM is much stronger than when he first replaced predecessor Jean Todt.
In an exclusive interview with Autosport's sister title GP Racing magazine, Ben Sulayem was asked whether the FIA and FOM must always agree. His reply was: “No. FOM has its points. But today, since I took over the presidency, we’re in a much better position together.
Source: Autosport