LAURA VILLARS Awaits Court Ruling on FIA Presidential Challenge Dec 3

November 10, 2025

• LAURA VILLARS is taking her fight for FIA presidential candidacy to French court, with a ruling expected December 3. The 28-year-old Swiss-French racer shocked the motorsport establishment by announcing her surprise challenge to incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem in September, but hit a bureaucratic wall that reeks of institutional gatekeeping.
• The system seems rigged against outsiders – VILLARS couldn’t assemble the required slate of vice-presidents from each FIA region because there’s literally only one South American candidate available, Brazilian Fabiana Ecclestone, who’s already locked up with Ben Sulayem’s team. It’s the kind of catch-22 that makes you wonder if these rules were designed to prevent exactly this kind of challenge.
• With the FIA presidential election scheduled for December 12 in Tashkent, Ben Sulayem looks set to run unopposed unless the court intervenes. VILLARS’ legal challenge through the Judicial Court of Paris could shake up the leadership of the body that governs Formula One, WRC, and Formula E – proving that sometimes you have to fight the system in court to get a fair shot at changing it.

ABB FIA Formula E, fia presidential election, formula one, motorsport governance