Steiner Hits Back at Ben Sulayem: 'The FIA Doesn't Owe Alonso a Fast Car'

In a newly released podcast episode, Guenther Steiner — former Haas team principal and now a familiar broadcast voice — was asked about FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem's remarks concerning Fernando Alonso. He did not dodge: "Nobody deserves anything. Aston Martin have to figure that out. That is their problem, not the federation's." A short, flat sentence, but it cuts straight into the most sensitive spot of the mid-season: where exactly is the line between the governing body and a driver's fate? The story began with Ben Sulayem's comments ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix — Alonso's home race. He said it was "not acceptable" for a two-time champion to be struggling at the back, and that the FIA had "done something earlier, in May, legally for the team towards the engine to go and improve." An FIA spokesperson later confirmed the remarks related to the ADUO mechanism. ADUO — Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities — sits inside the 2026 power unit regulations. When a manufacturer's power unit is judged to be below a defined performance benchmark, they receive additional development and upgrade allowances. What matters is not the word "upgrade" but the fact that triggering ADUO is a structural admission: that engine is weak. Over years of following F1 from the grandstand and the press room, I noticed a pattern: when a team's problem lives in the engine rather than the aero, the responsibility does not sit in their own factory. It sits upstream. Aston Martin are having a torrid season, but their problem may be solved somewhere other than Silverstone. And that is exactly where Steiner puts his finger. He does not deny that Alonso is suffering. He denies the premise that the federation must fix it. If Aston Martin want to keep Alonso, they must give him a decent car — that is the team's job, not the regulator's. Then Steiner delivers the killer comparison: Cadillac. The 11th team, newly arrived, has yet to score a single point. If the FIA is willing to "help" Aston Martin because Alonso is a two-time champion and is sad, what does the FIA owe Cadillac? Two layers need separating here. The first is technical: ADUO is a legal mechanism, on paper, with thresholds and process. The FIA invoking it means a real performance gap exists, and the governing body wants to stop that gap being locked in for the whole cycle. In principle, that is an anti-ossification design, in the same spirit as the reverse-order allocation of aero testing time. The second layer is communications. A sitting FIA President publicly said a specific driver "cannot continue like this," and that the federation had acted. Even if the technical substance is correct, the framing places the FIA in the role of a team's advocate, while Steiner plays the one reminding everyone that sporting outcomes belong to the teams, not the referee. I once believed in the numbers, until the numbers were torn apart by a counter-attack. Here, the numbers were torn by a sentence. Not a single lap was run, yet the balance of power has shifted. The stranger needs no ticket; they open the door with their own feet. Cadillac is that stranger in this story, and the door they are knocking on remains shut. Where could I be wrong? There is a legitimate reason for the FIA to worry. A legendary champion leaving the sport because of poor machinery is not good news. Alonso draws a huge audience; his presence is a commercial asset. But if the federation starts weighing commercial value when it designs technical rules, then neutrality — the one thing that keeps this sport a sport rather than a television show — goes on the scales. One more point makes me cautious: there is no lap-time data to confirm Alonso is still fast. We only have a story that the car is weak. The question of whether Alonso still has the pace is unresolved. Crowd emotion can defend a legend, but the stopwatch does not know how to love. This story will not end on a podcast. It ends with Alonso's contract — an extension, a move to Alpine, or retirement. When that driver decides, the question of "what does the federation owe whom" will get its most practical answer. For now, applause in an empty stadium rings truer than any song from the crowd. The only thing no one has verified is whether there is a neutral federation, or merely one that knows how to pick its media moment.