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Former senior executive Shaila-Ann Rao has made a surprise return to Formula 1’s governing body the FIA just over two years after leaving.<\/b><\/p>\n
Rao, who in 2022 left her position as interim secretary general after just six months<\/a> in the role, has been appointed adviser to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.<\/p>\n Rao is a lawyer who before joining the FIA the first time around had been general counsel to the Mercedes Formula 1 team and special adviser to their boss Toto Wolff.<\/p>\n A number of sources have said that Ben Sulayem and Rao had an at times difficult relationship in her six months with the FIA in 2022, and that this was discussed among senior figures within F1.<\/p>\n Rao returns to the FIA as Ben Sulayem prepares to run for a second term in December’s FIA presidential election.<\/p>\n The Emirati contacted Rao himself about returning to the organisation.<\/p>\n Rao’s re-appointment also comes in the wake of a series of controversies affecting Ben Sulayem over the three years of his presidency.<\/p>\n The most recent of these was the resignation of deputy president for sport Robert Reid<\/a> this month, expressing concerns over the direction of the governance at the FIA under Ben Sulayem’s leadership. <\/p>\n On the same day, the former chief executive officer Natalie Robyn broke the silence she had kept since she being asked to leave the organisation last summer after just 18 months in her role.<\/p>\n