Liberty Media, Formula 1's commercial rights holder would reportedly like to get rid of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the German news agency reports Sport1. According to Liberty, the international motorsport federation's board chairman has acted detrimentally with previous statements. In fact, a replacement is reportedly already in place.

Ben Sulayem recently spoke out about rumours that a Saudi investment fund would shell out $20 billion for a takeover of Formula 1. Liberty Media bought the sport as recently as 2017 for four billion, which would mean hefty profits for the Americans. The company would even be open to selling, but the president of the FIA called the said price tag "heavily inflated" in a tweet.

Liberty is anything but happy about that, and it was previously revealed that follow-up steps have not been ruled out. There would even be consideration of removing Ben Sulayem from his post, but for that to happen, 'serious misconduct' would have to be proven first. There is no sign of that at the moment, but if that does succeed, a replacement will be ready in the 70-year-old person of former Benetton and BAR team boss David Richards.

Pressure on Ben Sulayem increases

The Englishman, currently chairman of Motorsport UK would not be unsympathetic to the idea of replacing Ben Sulayem, should it come to that. The Emirati made several negative headlines last week. Among other things, it came to light that he was guilty of sexist statements about women in 2002. He was also challenged by a human rights organisation and British politicians over a new rule that prevents drivers from making "political statements".