Mayer expects a difficult fight with Ben Sulayem

FIA presidential candidate Tim Mayer says he expects a difficult fight with incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem this year but “I don’t plan to go down into the gutter.”

Mayer officially announced his campaign on Friday morning in a press conference at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix, becoming the first opponent to Ben Sulayem to confirm they would run ahead of this December’s election. Having told RACER the election process for new candidates is now “considerably more difficult, deliberately so,” he said at the press conference that he believes the campaign can be a respectful one between the two.

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“Well, I don't expect Mohammed to give up,” Mayer said. “This will be a close fight. This will be a difficult fight. I don't plan to go down into the gutter. I plan on simply speaking the truth.

“I think that this is about the politics of it. For me, it's not about the personalities. I've known Mohammed for a very long time. I've respected him as the head of an ASN that has a genuinely developed motorsport in his country. So from that perspective, I think we can do this respectfully.

“But I've been doing this for 34 years as well. I've stood on a scaffold tower and officiated a rallycross race with a pair of binoculars and one radio. So I've been at the grassroots level. I've also been in the stewards room in Formula 1 here. So I've seen the entire gamut. And I've managed races in Brazil where I was out stringing cable at midnight myself.

“But on the other hand, I've also been in the World Motorsport Council for 16 years. So I've seen all of this. And what I think is I can bring leadership with experience, with knowledge, that people can trust, and they know that I am trustworthy.”

One of the statute changes allows the nominations committee – that reports to Ben Sulayem – to scrutinize any candidate and potentially bar them from standing if they feel there is anything in their past that could call their professional integrity into question. Mayer says his father’s history is not something that concerns him on that front, having been a co-founder and team principal of McLaren over 40 years ago.

“I've been a Formula 1 steward since 2009. Everybody in the paddock knows that my dad [Teddy Mayer] founded McLaren Racing back in 1963. He sold it in 1982. I was 16 at the time. I've never worked for McLaren, never had a relationship with McLaren, other than I certainly shake hands with Zak [Brown] in the paddock. But nobody's actually had a problem with me being associated historically with McLaren.

“And by the way, in my bio that's published in the media every single week when I'm a steward, its first line has always said, ‘Tim Mayer, son of Teddy Mayer, blah, blah, blah.’ So all the teams know. All the teams have known, and nobody has ever objected.

“I will tell you the proudest moment of my officiating career. Dad, at the time, was running Penske Racing, and I penalized him at Motegi, Japan, for a pit stop violation that he pulled with Paul Tracy. They appealed the penalty. We went to the appeal process, and I won. He said, ‘Tim, the worm has turned.’"

Mayer is running at a time when F1 has been enjoying growing popularity in the United States over a number of years, but as the vote is among the FIA’s member clubs globally he says it’s his international experience that makes him such a strong candidate rather than his American roots.

“I'm very proud to be American. Happy Fourth of July, by the way – the timing is coincidental, this isn't Independence Day for anybody!

“I think I have been given an amazing opportunity in my career. I have, through American motorsport, been thrust into a worldwide role that has allowed me to go around the world, meet the people that run racing in Singapore, in China, in Japan, and work with all of these areas throughout Asia, throughout South America. I was a TV producer in Brazil for six years. So I've been to all of these different places – Argentina – and worked with all these people.

“So the president of the FIA is the president of a worldwide organization. Why should they trust me? Well, because I've got the experience. That was because I had the opportunity as an American to go out and do that. Now the job is to give that opportunity to people from all over the world.”