FIA trend continues as more high-level figures depart

Two more senior officials have left the FIA, following a swathe of resignations over the past 12 months.

Both Luke Skipper, director of communications and public affairs, and Jacob Bangsgaard, secretary general of automobile mobility and tourism, are moving on to pastures new, as first reported by Autosport.

Skipper has a long history in communications and public affairs, and was previously chief of staff to the Scottish National Party's Westminster Group between 2007 and 2015. He joined the FIA in 2022 as the first in his role.

Bangsgaard, meanwhile, began his position with the governing body in May 2023 and is founder and CEO of European Policy Research. Since launching the EPR in 1997, he has held a number of board-level positions in Brussels.

Skipper and Bangsgaard follow other high-profile resignations from the FIA over the past year.

First, Deborah Mayer stepped down from her position as the head of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission, with FIA sporting director Steve Nielsen and single-seater technical director Tim Goss following shortly after.

Nielsen has recently taken a role with Formula 1 and Goss will soon join RB as the team's chief technical officer.

Three more exits followed in 2024. First, two people with a direct involvement in Concorde Agreement between F1, its teams and the FIA left in February - head of commerical legal affairs Edward Floydd and governance and regulatory director Pierre Ketterer.

Then, in May, The FIA's first CEO, Natalie Robyn, was confirmed to be leaving to pursue outside opportunities, having been appointed to her role by Ben Sulayem in November 2022.

Whilst the most recent resignations in themselves appear to be inconsequential, they come at a point when FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has drawn attention to and increased the pressure on himself in recent weeks.

First, the 62-year-old called for F1 to tone down swearing ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, only for reigning drivers' champion Max Verstappen to use the F-word in the official FIA drivers' press conference later that day and argue against expecting drivers to clean up their language.

When the Dutchman was promptly punished by the stewards that weekend and handed what is akin to community service, he responded by limiting his answers in subsequent press conferences and hosting his own media scrums in the F1 paddock.

Further still, in the past few days, Ben Sulayem has called out his own treatment by British media, arguing he feels "convicted" by some of the coverage he receives.