Cost control and supporting local organizers are the main roles of the FIA

The president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Mohammed Ben Sulayem, has said that the main roles of the FIA are to ensure cost control in motorsport to make the sport more accessible to the wider public, as well as to support local organizers in finding the racing categories that are more suitable for them.

Ben Sulayem was speaking in a media interview yesterday at the Coloane Karting Track, following the FIA president’s visit to the facilities.

Discussing several topics related to the sport, Ben Sulayem noted that the FIA’s main role and responsibility are to find ways to make motorsport more affordable and, consequently, more accessible to a wider audience.

“We [at the FIA] have a bigger responsibility, which is making it [motorsport] more affordable. Affordability is accessibility. There is no way the FIA, and I promise you this, will allow karting to be only for the ‘rich men’s club or rich women’s club,’” he said, noting karting as the grassroots of all four-wheel circuit motorsport.

“Looking at karting, if you look at the most famous names now, all the drivers in Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, and Formula 4, all of them come from the grassroots. The only issue with the grassroots, which is karting, is that it has become very expensive. So, the FIA has a responsibility to make it more affordable,” he remarked.

New ‘FIA-owned’ karting chassis as a solution

In this bid to cut costs and make the sport more affordable, the FIA president revealed that by the end of this year, the FIA will present a new karting chassis design, owned by the governing body of international motorsport, that will be available to be manufactured in different regions and countries around the world to make it a cheaper and more sustainable option.

“So now, at the end of the year, there will be a chassis that is owned by the FIA, allowing all regions to manufacture it in their own country, which means you remove transport costs, you remove labor costs, which is better, and then prices come down. Of course, we are also looking at the four-stroke engine that’s being used here [T4], which is for the entry level,” Ben Sulayem revealed, noting that the FIA is “working hand-in-hand with local motorsport associations to find the most suitable solutions.”

Before the media interview, the FIA president had the opportunity to visit the track, meet some of the young local racers, and signal the start of the 2026 AAMC (Automobile General Association Macao-China) Karting Championship (T4 Round 7), which uses the aforementioned T4 engines.

The T4 engine is a low-maintenance, 225cc four-stroke engine producing approximately 15 horsepower. It is designed to create a cost-effective, one-make kart racing platform that makes four-stroke racing accessible to a wider audience while also supporting environmental protection.

Questioned on the evolution and changes recently made to the Macau Grand Prix (GP), which include the launch of the FIA F4 World Cup last year and the switch to Formula Regional cars for the main race in 2024, replacing the F3 International cars, the FIA president refuted the idea that the FIA had imposed such changes. Instead, Ben Sulayem noted that the role of the FIA is to support the National Sporting Authorities (ASNs) to find the racing categories that best suit their goals and purposes.

He remarked that, according to conversations held on several occasions between the FIA and the local ASN – AAMC – it was concluded that the best category, and the one that suits Macau’s purpose and role better, is the F4 category, hinting that this will likely be the category to receive more attention and development in the future.

Ben Sulayem and many top FIA officials are in Macau to attend the FIA Extraordinary General Assembly and Annual Conference, which takes place from today (June 23) until June 25.

In total, 450 senior FIA delegates from mobility and motorsport across 149 countries will gather at the Galaxy International Convention Center to discuss several initiatives in road safety, sustainable mobility, regional sporting growth, and innovation in transport.