Mohammed Ben Sulayem has drawn a clear line in the sand: Formula 1, he says, cannot allow Fernando Alonso to slip quietly out of the sport in an uncompetitive car and a miserable mood.
The FIA president, speaking at an event in Madrid, made no attempt to hide either his admiration for Alonso or his frustration at the Spaniard’s current plight with Aston Martin. Alonso, 45, is out of contract at the end of the season and has already said his decision on whether to continue in F1 will come “not soon”. For a driver of his stature, drifting towards the exit door in the slow lane feels all wrong.
‘That’s not the way to leave the stage’
Aston Martin sit 10th in the constructors’ standings, their 2025 car short of the mark and their Honda power-unit regarded as the weakest on the grid. It is a grim backdrop for a two-time world champion returning to race in front of his home fans.
Ben Sulayem does not like what he is seeing.
“There is no way we can allow Fernando to leave – Alonso, a great champion – to leave just because of the circumstances,” he 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.”
The FIA president described seeing Alonso “very sad” and laid bare a conversation between the pair, rooted in that image of a national hero struggling in front of his own crowd.
“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 sentence trailed off, but the message was obvious: a driver of Alonso’s calibre should not be reduced to also-ran status.
Inside the engine debate
Ben Sulayem then pointed to steps already taken on the regulatory side to give underpowered teams a route back towards competitiveness.
“We did something earlier, in May, legally for the team towards the engine to go and improve,” he explained, before recalling what he told Alonso: “‘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.’”
An FIA spokesperson later clarified that Ben Sulayem was referring to Formula 1’s additional development and upgrade opportunities system, known as Aduo. Under that framework, engine manufacturers whose power units are judged to be more than 2% down on the benchmark are granted extra chances to upgrade their designs.
“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, immediately raised a familiar question around Ben Sulayem’s presidency: where is the line between passionate leadership and overreach?
His tenure has already been marked by controversy over governance changes and the removal of certain checks and balances inside the FIA. So when he talks about asking Alonso what he wants and “doing something legally” for the team and engine, it inevitably triggers scrutiny over how far the governing body might lean towards a specific driver or outfit.
Pressed on whether the president’s words suggested a willingness to intervene in a way that could blur the FIA’s role as an independent, objective regulator, 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.
A champion caught in the gap
Strip away the politics and the scene is stark. Alonso, one of the defining drivers of his era, is wrestling with whether to extend a career that has already stretched far beyond most of his peers. Aston Martin are struggling. Honda’s current engine package lags behind. The gap to the front feels wide.
Ben Sulayem, from his vantage point at the top of the sport, is effectively saying that Formula 1 cannot afford to lose Alonso like this – beaten by machinery rather than by time.
The regulations can offer Aduo lifelines. The FIA can tinker at the margins. Aston Martin and Honda can chase performance.
The real decision still sits with Alonso.
