FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 - Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan - September 18, 2025 General view of a FIA flag ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
PARIS (Reuters) -Swiss-French racer Laura Villars has taken legal action to challenge rules that prevented her from standing against the incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem for president of motorsport's world governing body.
A vote was scheduled for December but Emirati Ben Sulayem is set to be returned unopposed to a second term at the helm of the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
Villars, 28, announced her surprise candidacy in September but was unable to put together the required slate of potential vice-presidents from an official list of 29 by an October 24 deadline.
Every candidate must name one person from all the FIA global regions but there is only one South American on the list, Fabiana Ecclestone, and she is already on Ben Sulayem's team.
In a statement dated October 27, Villars said the Judicial Court of Paris had authorised her to summon the FIA before an emergency judge, with a hearing scheduled for November 10.
Her lawyer Robin Binsard said the court was "taking seriously the serious democratic failings within the FIA, as well as several violations of its Statutes and Regulations that we have denounced."
The action was applauded by American Tim Mayer, a former Formula One steward who had also intended to stand but been unable to do so.
Mayer, the son of former McLaren boss Teddy Mayer, denounced the FIA election procedure this month as offering only "the illusion of democracy."
"In South America only one person stood for the World Motorsport Council. In Africa only two. All three are directly associated with the incumbent. The result is simple," he said then.
"No one but the incumbent can run under the FIA system."
Villars said she was not acting against the FIA but to protect it: "Democracy is not a threat to the FIA; it is its strength," she added.
The Paris-based FIA described the presidential election as "a structured and democratic process, to ensure fairness and integrity at every stage."
It said the election requirements were not new and were defined in the FIA statutes and internal regulations publicly available on the FIA website.
"Due to the nature of the process, the FIA is unable to comment on this legal action and will not be able to provide further comment on this matter," a spokesman said.
(Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, additional reporting by Vincent DaheronEditing by Christian Radnedge)
