LAURA VILLARS Takes FIA to Court Over Uncontested Election Process

December 12, 2025

• LAURA VILLARS, along with American Tim Mayer and Belgium’s VIRGINIE PHILIPPOT, were blocked from challenging Mohammed ben Sulayem’s FIA presidency after failing to meet nomination requirements – specifically needing vice-presidential candidates from each global region, with only one eligible South American option available who had already committed to Ben Sulayem’s team.
• The Swiss racer didn’t just accept this bureaucratic roadblock quietly – she took the FIA to French courts seeking an emergency injunction, with a hearing scheduled for February 16 that could potentially review, challenge, or annul the entire election’s validity despite it proceeding as planned.
• FABIANA ECCLESTONE emerged as the sole eligible South American vice-presidential candidate, creating a bottleneck that effectively eliminated all challengers when she aligned with the incumbent’s campaign – a structural issue that Tim Mayer called an “illusion of democracy” during his extraordinary Austin press conference.

ABB FIA Formula E, election process, legal proceedings, motorsport governance