Mohammed Ben Sulayem

Mohammed Ben Sulayem
President of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 December 2021
Preceded by	Jean Todt
Personal details
Born	(1961-11-12) 12 November 1961 Dubai, Trucial States (now United Arab Emirates)
World Rally Championship record
Active years	1988–1995
Teams	Ford, Toyota
Rallies	18
Rally wins	0
Podiums	0
Stage wins	0
Total points	12
First rally	1988 Acropolis Rally
Last rally	1995 Rally New Zealand

Mohammed Ahmed bin Sulayem or Mohammed ben Sulayem (Arabic: محمد بن سليم; born 12 November 1961) is an Emirati former rally driver and current president of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile).

He is one of the Arab world's leading motor sport figures. In a rallying career spanning three decades, he became one of the most successful Arab drivers in motor sport history, earning 14 FIA Middle East Rally Championship titles and establishing himself as a sporting ambassador for the region. He was a key person in the formation and running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009. In 2008, he became the first Arab named as Vice President of the FIA, and the first to be elected to the FIA World Motor Sport Council. As the Vice-President he has pioneered teaching, research and knowledge transfer initiatives in motor sport. In December 2021, he was appointed the FIA President.

As President of the Automobile & Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates since 2006, via which he is a patron of a wide range of charities and ambassador for road safety in the UAE; supports motor sport officials' and young drivers' education, training and research to promote motor sport safety; co- edited an academic book on sports management; supporter of classic vehicle movement and automotive heritage.

In June 2013, he was appointed as chairman of the new Motor Sport Development Task Force set up by the FIA to build a ten-year plan for the sport's global development.

Education

Sulayem studied at the American University in Washington D.C., and at the University of Ulster in the UK where he majored in business.

In July 2012, Sulayem was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Ulster, in recognition of his services to sport, civic leadership and charity.

Rallying career

After entering rallying in Dubai in the early 1980s, Sulayem quickly progressed from local events into the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, which was established in 1984, and two years later he won the first of his 14 regional titles.

From that point on he dominated the Middle East Championship up to his retirement from competitive rallying in 2002, clinching the title in each of the 13 other seasons in which he contested the regional series.

With 61 international victories in the Middle East overall, he has won more FIA rallies, and more FIA championships, than any other driver.

Sulayem's international reputation was widened by regular overseas excursions, including several with the official Toyota works team in the FIA World Rally Championship. His 1991 victory in Turkey’s Bosphorus Rally was the first by an Arab driver in an international Rally outside the Middle East.

Over the next two years he contested the Group N World Rally Championship, recording production class victories in Spain and Argentina.

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

In 1991, Sulayem founded the UAE Desert Challenge, and over the next few years he developed the event into one of the world's most spectacular and demanding international cross country rallies for cars and trucks, as well as bikes and quads.

In 1993, Sulayem succeeded in taking the event into the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies.

Two years later, the Desert Challenge doubled up for the first time as a round of the FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship, and continues to attract the world's top bike and quad riders to the dramatic desert terrain of the UAE.

The event entered a new era in March 2009 when it was renamed the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, and is staged in its entirety in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, taking competitors on a testing adventure through the spectacular desert terrain of the Western Region of Al Garbia.

Reaching deep into the Liwa desert, the route crosses some of the most demanding landscapes on earth, testing drivers, riders, and machinery to the limit in the crossing of towering dunes and desert plains.

FIA role

In 2021, Sulayem was appointed the president of the FIA.

In 2008, Sulayem was appointed Vice President of the FIA and a member of the World Motor Sport Council.

The FIA is the global sporting authority for motorsport and represents 100 million car owners in almost 200 countries. The World Motor Sport Council meets at least four times a year to decide on rules, regulations, safety and development of motor sport at every level, from karting to Formula One.

Headed by the FIA President, its membership is chosen by the FIA General Assembly, which contains representatives from national automobile clubs throughout the world.

In his FIA role, Sulayem has pioneered teaching, research and knowledge transfer initiatives in the UAE and elsewhere throughout the world.

In June 2013 he was named as chairman of the FIA's Motor Sport Development Task Force, with the responsibility to devise a strategic plan to develop and grow motorsport in a sustainable manner over the next ten years. It will be the first such plan in the 109-year history of the FIA, and Sulayem immediately started a consultation process with motor sport stakeholders, including manufacturers, the media, promoters, fans and FIA member clubs around the world. He will brief the World Motorsport Council on progress at its September meeting in Croatia, when the other members of the task force will be nominated. He will present the ten-year plan to the FIA General Assembly for approval at the end of 2014.

Sulayem is a founding member of the Arab Council of Touring and Automobile Clubs, which aims to unite the FIA Clubs of Arabic-speaking territories.

FIA Middle East Rally Championship

Sulayem's success as a record-breaking driver in the FIA Middle East Rally Championship helped attract worldwide attention for the regional series, and brought greater international credibility for Middle East motor sport.

When the championship's popularity faded in recent years, he responded by tasking an ATCUAE research team to develop a new strategic approach to breathe life back into the series.

In December 2012, the World Motorsport Council approved Sulayem's plans to boost the championship by incorporating four additional title races to attract young driving talent and increase entries overall. As a result, the 2013 FIA Middle East Championship got under way in Qatar in January with a new look, the main drivers’ championship running alongside individual categories for Group N production cars, young drivers, and 2WD vehicles, as well as a T3 class for 2WD and 4WD buggies.

In another move instigated by Sulayem to reverse the trend of falling entries in recent years, the homologation period of some older rally cars was extended, giving a new lease of life to vehicles - and their drivers - which fell out of the series but can now continue until 2016.

At his instigation, the championship also featured a sophisticated new tracking system designed to eliminate route deviations. Tested successfully during the 2012 Dubai International Rally, the new upgraded system was developed to ensure a fairer level of competition, with realistic penalties replacing the harsher ones of recent years to allow those who stray off line to remain in contention.

Sport management

Sulayem is the principal contributor to the book ‘Sport Management in the Middle East: A Case Study Analysis’, which was published in May 2013. It addresses the educational and professional needs of the sport industry in the Middle East, and has been hailed as one of the very best sport management books to be published in the last ten years. It was the first ever book examining the burgeoning growth of sport management in the Middle East, which has attracted global audiences through the F1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a range of other international events, added to major sponsorships by Etihad and Emirates airlines. Professor David Hassan, from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, and Dr Sean O Connor, Director of the ATCUAE, were the other contributors to the book, which was released by the academic publishers, Routledge.

Rallying achievements

Sulayem was FIA Middle East rally champion 14 times in the years 1986-1991, 1994, and 1996-2002.

His record of individual rally victories is as follows:

FIA Middle East Rally Championship

• Dubai International Rally (15): 1985-88, 1991–95, 1997-2002
• Jordan International Rally (12): 1984, 1987–88, 1990, 1994, 1996-2002
• Qatar International Rally (9): 1988, 1990–91, 1996–98, 2000, 2001, 2002
• Oman International Rally (6): 1986-87, 1990–91, 1994, 1998
• UAE International Rally (5): 1996-99, 2001
• Rally of Lebanon (4): 1987, 1991, 1998–99
• Kuwait International Rally (4): 1985, 1988–89, 1996
• Bahrain International Rally (3): 2000, 2001, 2002
• Syrian International Rally (2): 2001, 2002

Other international rally wins

• Masafi 4WD Rally - UAE 1985
• Jebel Akhbar International Rally – Oman 1986
• Bosphorus Rally – Turkey 1991
• WRC Catalunya Rally – Group N 1992
• WRC Argentine Rally – Group N 1993
• Saudi Rally – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2000

Other awards

• 1986 Medal of Honour from King Hussein of Jordan
• 1987 President's Cup from President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon
• 1999 Medal of Honour from King Abdullah of Jordan

Medal of Honour from Lebanese President Emile Lahoud UAE Sportsman of the Century from Agence France-Press (AFP)

• 2004 Medal of Honour from King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain

In Media

Sulayem's name appears as NPC competitors name in several computer games regarding car racing such as Colin McRae: Dirt 2 and Dirt 3.

External links

• Mohammed Ben Sulayem
• Ben Sulayem Performance
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• Jalopnik More on the SLR-Powered Mercedes SLK: Out of the Mouths of Mechanics
• Automobile & Touring Club of the UAE