The FIA has revealed that it has forecast its first positive financial year since 2018, reporting a “significant turnaround” in its status.

Ahead of the FIA’s Prizegiving Gala in Kigali, Rwanda, the FIA held its 2024 General Assemblies – at which the F1 governing body revealed a major turnaround in its financial health.

FIA reports financial turnaround during 2024

The FIA, as a non-profit making organisation overseeing automotive sectors globally as well as being the governing body for major international and national motorsport series – which includes Formula 1 – has been operating at a financial loss in recent years.

However, the governing body has reported a “significant turnaround” in its financial status from measures taken during the 2024 season.

The FIA says it has forecast an operating result of €2.2 million in 2024, up from a low of being down €24 million after the 2021 season at the conclusion of Jean Todt’s administration.

The reason for the turnaround, a short statement from the FIA states, is down to “an increase in revenues and savings” and has come about due to a “robust governance and sustainability model”.

The numbers are the best the FIA has seen in seven years, and “the first positive one” since 2018.

The FIA’s 2023 financial reports showed the beginning of the turnaround, with 2022’s operating loss of €7.7 million reducing to €0.8 million in ’23 – the balance sheet total amounted to €218.5 million, an increase of just under €16 million compared to 2022.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for the FIA on the Formula 1 governance side of things this year, with multiple departures putting scrutiny on FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s approach to his authority.

But it is in measures taken by Ben Sulayem in which the FIA has seen its financial turnaround, with steps taken to introduce a streamlining of the FIA’s accounting and reporting procedures, as well as a full independent financial audit of the entire FIA.

“This achievement is a result of our commitment of reform of the organisation in the areas of governance and finance,” Ben Sulayem said of the news.

“The new FIA leadership inherited a financial situation which was not sustainable in 2022. We have worked hard to reduce a sizeable deficit and have stabilised the overall financial health of the federation.

“We have implemented cost-containment measures and revenue-generating strategies to put the FIA on a more sustainable financial footing to meet our primary purpose of supporting our Member clubs.”

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Mohammed Ben Sulayem: The FIA will never get the credit

Ben Sulayem took over from Jean Todt as president at the end of 2021 and, two years ago, claimed to have inherited a large financial debt at the FIA – requiring urgent attention.

“There was a financial issue that we didn’t know about,” he said, as reported by Motorsport.com at the time.

“We had a deficit, even before the [COVID-19] pandemic, but I’m pleased to have cleared that.

“We all know and I’ll be very honest with you, we had an issue with the finance. We had a deficit this year, which was over $20 million.”

Todt responded in an interview with French publication L’Equipe, in which he claimed there to have been “€250 million” in reserve, a significant increase from €40 million at the end of 2009 when he took over the presidency.

“I don’t call it a deficit,” Todt said.

“When I left, the budget had been multiplied by almost three, with many new competitions and sources of income, such as Formula E, the World Endurance Championship, or the Rally Raid Championship.”

While the FIA Presidency is not a salaried position, the FIA itself generates finances through its governance of F1, including routes such as team entry fees and super licence fees.

But the FIA’s ability to make money pales into insignificance against what promoters and Liberty Media have been able to make, as Ben Sulayem pointed out in an interview earlier this year.

“We will never get the credit. Impossible,” he told Motorsport.com. “We’ll only get rubbish. That I know.

“When you look at it, everybody made money out of the FIA, everyone except the FIA. Everyone gets the credit, except the FIA.

“It’s true. When I took over, we had a running operating cost of minus 20 million. Why? Because we have our income as everybody. But look at the promoters… And good on them and I congratulate them, they are smart enough to do that.”

Ben Sulayem went on to suggest that Liberty Media, owners of F1, were the ones benefiting the most and that, if he was part of the negotiation to sell the sport to the American company, he would have looked for a better deal for the FIA.

“But I’ll be very, very honest, as always. So Liberty Media did a great job in transforming Formula 1. If you tell me if I could go back in time, would I undo [that]? No way. I wouldn’t undo that, but I would just make sure that the FIA is two equals with them.

“They are a good promoter, they are. If you ask me today: is there anyone who is capable as much as them? I can see that [there isn’t]. I support them in what they are doing. The FIA works with them in the best [possible] way.

“But then, the regulations and the governance is the [work of the] FIA.

“And then, let everyone make money. Let the drivers have fun, race in a safe way and make money. And let the team principals make more money, [and] they are.

“But the FIA will never get the credit. Impossible.”

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