This week has been entirely taken up for me with FIA Sport Conference week at Goodwood House. It is the first time that the FIA has hosted such an event and they asked me to be conference moderator, which meant animating five 90 minute panel discussion sessions over three days, featuring over 50 speakers, as well as a Q&A with FIA Race Directors Charlie Whiting and Herbie Blash.
The topics under discussion this week revolved around the main challenges facing the sport; specifically safety, sustainability and affordability. FIA president Jean Todt set the tone in the opening speech when he called on the federations to realise that the sport must face up to the threats of face being legislated out of business, “If we allow other actors into our sport, they will define the conditions under which it (motorsport) is practised,” he said. “We know that if we do not assume our responsibilities in this area and if we remain passive, others will take it upon themselves to give a direction to motor sport that may not be in line with our values and which would be detrimental to us in the end.”
The guest speakers and panelists were many and various, from Vicky Chandhok (Karun’s father and Chairman of the Indian motorsport federation) to Lord Drayson, fresh from breaking the world speed record for EVs at 324 km/h, to 1980s rally heroine Michelle Mouton and F1 test crash survivor Maria de Vilotta (above centre).
The over 200 delegates came largely from the national federations of 82 countries, from Costa Rica to Botswana to Barbados to Malta. The sessions were very interactive with the audience and it was fascinating to hear their experiences of trying to organise a rally in Africa or build a new race track in Sri Lanka, which is emerging from years of civil war. Astonishingly, the representative from Syria revealed how active the motor sport scene is there, proving that the sport is central to many people’s lives, even in the most difficult circumstances.
It was interesting to learn that much of the $100 million received from the McLaren fine went into the FIA Institute (the R&D department of the federation) and has been redistributed to these smaller national federations in grants for training of officials and volunteers. This programme sees experienced federations like CAMS in Australia or the MSA in the UK partner with a federation in a developing country to train officials, introducing best practice for safety and race direction and raising the competence of the federation. It’s been a comprehensive programme over several years.
During the week the FIA launched several documents reaching out to the network of national federations, from documents on how to develop as a federation, to medical reports to a Strategy for Sustainability.
One of the most interesting presentations came from Andy Mellor of the FIA Institute, the man who does research into things like cockpit canopies and front roll hoops for F1 cars. Mellor showed videos of crash tests and highlighted the work on areas like preventing cockpit penetration in a T bone accident and ways of lowering the nose of an F1 car to prevent a launch like Mark Webber’s off the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s car in Valencia a few years ago.
On a more light hearted note, Doctor Paul Trafford told of a high profile international driver who was unable to give a urine sample after a race for the anti-doping tests and was forced to wait around for five hours until he could manage it.
It was interesting to learn about the amount of work that has been going on, far more than I had realised from the outside.
But above all, the take home for me was the sheer number of nationalities in the room – passing from the oriental face of the man from Taiwan, to the tanned face of the man from Colombia, to the enthusiasm of the man from Botswana and the calm dignity of the lady from Morocco – you realise that the sport is truly global, as are many of the challenges facing it.