The Charity Commission has announced an investigation into concerns over a potential conflict of interest at the FIA Foundation, a charity set up by motorsport governing body the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).
The regulator said it had opened a statutory inquiry to protect the charity’s property while it investigates issues that have been raised with it.
“Due to the nature of the concerns, the regulator has issued the charity with an immediate temporary protective order,” the commission said in a statement.
“This order prevents the charity and its trustees from entering into certain transactions without the prior written approval of the commission.”
Concerns over grant awards focus of inquiry
The FIA Foundation was established in 2001, with a donation of $300m made by the FIA, to support charitable work on road safety, environmental protection, sustainable mobility, and motorsport safety.
The charity recently announced the departure “by mutual agreement” of its executive director, Saul Billingsley, who had been part of the team that set up the FIA Foundation.
In a statement, the Charity Commission said its investigation “will examine the extent to which the trustees are complying or have complied with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management of the charity”.
A number of FIA Foundation trustees have held roles at the FIA itself. The regulator said it will be looking into the relationship between the charity and the FIA, “and whether any conflicts of interest have been appropriately identified and managed, with specific reference to grants awarded by the charity”.
The FIA Foundation describes itself as “primarily” a grantmaking body, and according to its recently published 2025 annual review made 68 awards to 39 organisations totalling €16.3m (approximately £14m) during 2024. Its gross income for the year was £9.4m, against a gross expenditure of £19m, according to accounts filed with the regulator.
The commission also said it will be “determining whether any of the charity’s property has been or is at risk and to take action to protect such property”.
The regulator warned the scope of its inquiry, opened on 22 January, may expand should additional issues be identified.
FIA Foundation ‘confident affairs properly conducted’
A spokesperson on behalf of the FIA Foundation said: “The Charity Commission has contacted the FIA Foundation raising regulatory issues.
They added that the regulator informed the FIA Foundation “that this regulatory engagement is not a finding of wrongdoing”.
“The trustees of the foundation are confident that its affairs have been properly conducted, and they intend to co-operate fully with the commission to achieve a speedy resolution of the commission’s concerns,” the spokesperson said.
