F1 has been “plunged into fresh turmoil over accusations” that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem “conspired to stop the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix taking place on bogus safety grounds,” according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. The new accusations against Ben Sulayem claim he “told officials not to certify Las Vegas’s temporary street circuit for November’s chaotic grand prix" and was said to have “come from the same whistle blower to have accused Ben Sulayem of conspiring to overturn a penalty to Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia last year.” According to the BBC, a report states that the whistle-blower “alleged they were contacted by their manager ‘who on behest of the FIA president instructed him to find some concerns to prevent the FIA from certifying the circuit before the weekend of the race’” and that “the purpose was to find fault with the track in order to withhold the licence” and that “issues on the circuit were meant to be artificially identified regardless of their actual existence.” The whistle-blower claims an individual was "tasked with performing this job, naming two further officials who were in the room at the time," with the report adding those involved were “unable to find any concerns with the circuit and therefore certified the circuit fit for the race” (London TELEGRAPH, 3/5).
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