FILE PHOTO: Formula One F1 - Italian Grand Prix - Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy - September 7, 2025 FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem before the race REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini/File Photo
PARIS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Formula One's governing body can return sole candidate Mohammed Ben Sulayem as president next week but faces a legal challenge in February, a lawyer for would-be opponent Laura Villars said on Wednesday.
Swiss-French racer Villars, 28, had sought an emergency judgment from the Judicial Court of Paris seeking to suspend the election after FIA statutes prevented her and fellow-candidate Tim Mayer, an American, from standing.
The election is scheduled for Tashkent on December 12 with Ben Sulayem set to serve a second four-year term.
“The urgent applications judge held that this dispute must be heard on the merits, and we will therefore continue this litigation against the FIA before the judges sitting on the merits. A first hearing is scheduled for 16 February 2026," said Villars' lawyer Robin Binsard in a statement.
Villars' legal team said the election's "validity, in light of the objections raised, may be reviewed, challenged, or annulled by the court" at the future hearing.
"She will continue this action before the judges on the merits to ensure that the electoral process complies with the standards of governance expected from an international organisation."
There was no immediate comment from the FIA.
Villars announced her surprise candidacy in September but was unable, like Mayer, to put together the required slate of potential vice-presidents from an official list of 29 by the October 24 deadline.
Every candidate must name one person from all the FIA global regions but there is only one South American on the official list, Brazilian Fabiana Ecclestone, and she is already on Ben Sulayem's team.
The judge ordered Villars and Mayer to pay 7,000 euros ($8,162.70) plus costs to the FIA.
The FIA is the governing body for Formula One, the World Rally Championship and Formula E among other series.
($1 = 0.8576 euros)
(Writing by Alan Baldwin in Abu Dhabi, reporting by Vincent Daheron and Michaela CabreraEditing by Toby Davis)
