Tim Mayer has withdrawn his bid for the FIA presidency, describing the election process as undemocratic.

The American, son of McLaren co-founder Teddy Mayer, was certain to be absent from the ballot when finalized next week after failing to gain the required support of vice presidential candidates in various regions, most notably South America.

His withdrawal, and the process, which the FIA has defended, means that Mohammed ben Sulayem will go into the election in December unopposed.

"There will be a formal vote, but it will be for only one candidate," said Mayer as he announced his withdrawal. "This is no longer a democratic process when choice is replaced by control.

"When elections are decided before ballots are cast, that's not democracy, that's theatre," he continued. "And when member clubs are left with no real choice, they become spectators, not participants."

Mayer claims to have travelled 200,000 miles in a bid to get the votes of 245 member clubs in 149 countries.

"There is absolutely no transparency," he said of the current governance. "This is not an overnight process. This has happened over two decades. Mohammed is not the first person to think of ways to restrict the ballot but we have got to the point where only one person can go on the ballot.

"We strongly believe a series of ethics violations have been committed in this election process," he continued. "And we have now submitted numerous ethics complaints. Assuming the Ethics Committee finds validity to our complaints, who does this go to for action? The president of the FIA or the senate president both conflicted parties. The statutes don't provide for any other method or for any appeal. Where is the accountability? This is how institutions fail.

"I am not a revolutionary," he insisted. "I want to evolve the FIA to a better place so I intend to use the processes of the FIA as much as is don't believe they are independent or free and open."

A steward with the FIA, and with much experience in motorsport, Mayer was fired last year by Ben Sulayem, but has always denied that his criticism of the president and decision to stand for the presidency was personal or revenge for his firing.

"This is not about revenge," he told reporters in July. "It's about how we can drive the FIA forward. It's about what we can do better in this campaign and as we go forward four years after that.

"Mohammed Ben Sulayem made promises three and a half years ago that were good ideas," he added, "transparency, governance, he even promised he would be a non-executive president. He hasn't delivered on those ideas. In fact, it has been quite the opposite."

While announcing his withdrawal from the presidential 'race', Mayer quoted from a report into the sport's governing body by the Utrecht School of Governance, which studies public organisations in how they deal with developments in politics and society.

The report claims that the FIA is "among federations that have adopted the formal trappings of modern governance but lack robust institutional policies and safeguards", adding that the FIA's governance "structurally concentrates power in the office of the president, and accountability remains confined within a system over which the president exercises decisive control".

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