Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s top motor sport official is pleased with the manner in which the sport has achieved its goal of self-sufficiency in organising high-profile events in the country.

“My challenge continues in trying to achieve self-sufficiency. I want everything to be ‘Made in the UAE’. When we brought in 350 marshals and allied staff from the UK and Bahrain to oversee the first edition of the race here two years, I took it upon myself to ensure we go in for self-sufficiency. And today, we can proudly say that we have achieved this goal,” Mohammad Bin Sulayem, Vice President, FIA (Sports), told Gulf News.

“This move of having our own officials to organize and conduct a race of this stature gives the race a UAE identity. And it is our intention to continue in this mode so that our event here keeps on getting more and more successful on the world championship with this identity surrounding it,” Bin Sulayem added.

Excitement

Having the race at the Yas Marina Circuit at the end of the season has its merits and de-merits, according to the 14-time Middle East Rallying Champion. “The title may be already settled like we have it this season or it can be wide open like we had last year. But one element that we will always have is the excitement of having a competitive race that is typical of Abu Dhabi,” Bin Sulayem said. “It’s a win-win situation for Abu Dhabi and we have nothing to lose.”

The FIA Vice President insisted that the element of safety is an every-growing area of concern for the sport, of late even more highlighted with two deaths in as many weeks in the world of motor sport. “Safety is always a huge concern for us and we need to pay proper attention to how we organize a race or an event of this stature with near-total safety. Formula One is a great challenge, but it lasts just one week here. What is even more important is how we make safety a part of our experience in motorsport,” he noted.

Safety

“It is impossible to have an extremely safe race or any other motorsport event for that matter. There will always be incidents and accidents, but the emphasis has to be on how we can minimise these. We now have so many departments in the FIA paying attention to the safety aspect. This shows how keen the world governing body is about the safety of the sport and all those involved in it,” he added.

Bin Sulayem also used the presence of some of the fastest race drivers in the UAE to send out a stiff warning on safety to local participants.

“Safety does not pertain just to Formula One or the GP2. It is also about other disciplines. I am speaking about motorsport activity in the UAE. I have heard people say that Mohammad does not want to have the UAE Rally Championship. Sorry, if you are not going to have the right safety equipment then there is no way we can have such events,” Bin Sulayem said.

“People [drivers] are ready to spend Dh100,000 on their vehicles, but they don’t want to spend an additional Dhs 5,000 on the safety equipment and I simply cannot understand this,” he added.