‘Mercedes think FIA investigation is deliberate attempt at reputational damage’

F1’s governing body announced on Tuesday that there were looking into allegations “of information of a confidential nature being passed to an F1 team principal from a member of FOM personnel”.

The FIA did not name any individuals involved but confirmation of their investigation followed a report by Business F1 which claimed rival team bosses had raised concerns about the Wolffs.

Mercedes and F1 have denied the accusations, as has Susie Wolff, the F1 Academy director, who branded the claims as “intimidatory and misogynistic”.

Providing an update on the investigation, Sky Sports News reporter Craig Slater revealed that FIA sources had informed him that “more than one F1 team principal” had raised concerns, though he was unable to verify that information himself.

“This is serious friction at the summit of F1, and strong words from Susie Wolff yesterday defending her own position and accusing her accusers of misogyny,” Slater told Sky Sports News.

“I’ve been in touch with the FIA today about this and they reject out of hand any notion that these allegations, certainly in terms of their investigation of them, have been prompted by a misogynistic attitude on their part.

“They say they are responding to the concerns of competitors and merely going through due process in all of this.

“They’ve let it be understood that this is something that they’ve had their eye on for some time. Not only that, but more than one F1 team principal, according to my sources within the FIA, has raised concern about it being a conflict of interest that Susie Wolff, who is the managing director of the F1 Academy, is also married to Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal.

“They have also said to me that it would have been normal for them to necessarily contact those they are investigating at this stage of the investigation, though I understand that there are conversations now going on behind the scenes between F1 management and the FIA, and that they have been sent a letter from the FIA about this investigation.

“But Mercedes have received nothing, as I understand it, at this stage still.

“Now I’ve also been doing the rounds and trying to find out if indeed I can fact-check that more than one team principal, or indeed any F1 team principal has raised this concern. I have not been able to do that yet.”

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Slater continued: “I’ve spoken to some senior figures in the team today and some of them have expressed to me that they think this has been done to deliberately cause them reputational damage.

“The fact that they had no prior notice that this was going to come into the public domain, that the first they heard of it was via the FIA’s media statement, that they understand that journalists were briefed about this, so therefore Toto Wolff and Susie Wolff were thrown into this glare of publicity before the whole issue had been properly investigated.

“So their names are associated with some kind of breach of propriety within their operations in their different roles.

“And it’s also, as far as some of those senior figures in that team have explained to me, this is falling within a wider context of friction between the FIA and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

“They’ve cited to me the fact that he was reprimanded for swearing in a news conference and that within the last couple of weeks, the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem spoke about the potential to bring back Michael Masi, the controversial race director.

“They think this has been so badly mishandled that it’s hard to explain otherwise than as a deliberate attempt to cause some reputational damage.

“Both Mercedes and F1 absolutely stand by their understanding that there has been zero impropriety in terms of Susie Wolff’s role and F1 and that there is no example of any information passed between her and her husband which in any way constitutes some kind of breach within what should be properly done within each of their roles.

“So as far as they are concerned, this investigation will come to absolutely nothing, but of course, they regret the fact that it has caused all this publicity and placed a question mark, as far as they are concerned, not just over Toto Wolff but Susie Wolff, who has been an absolute shining light promoting the cause for women in motorsport."