Vasseur labels FIA-Wolff drama “quite embarrassing” for F1

It was a dramatic sequence of events for the sport last week, with the FIA announcing that they would be investigating the Wolffs after a claim that the pair had exchanged confidential information - which would be deemed to be a conflict of interest given that Susie is head of F1 Academy, while Wolff is Mercedes team principal.

24 hours after the FIA’s decision to investigate the Wolffs, all 10 teams released an identical statement, declaring their support.

• Mercedes in “active legal exchange” with the FIA after Wolff investigation

Embarrassingly for the FIA, they soon after confirmed they would no longer be investigating them.

Giving his view on it, Vasseur said:  “I think this story is quite embarrassing for our sport.

“The story started with an article in a newspaper, I don't know if newspaper is the right word. And I think in this situation when you are speaking about an individual, you have to take care of what you are saying.

“I think it would have been appropriate from the FIA; they needed 24 hours between the [first] announcement and the second announcement. It would have made sense to use the 24 hours before the first announcement [to investigate], to avoid any bad conclusions.”

Vasseur then quipped “even Red Bull was supportive of Toto”. 

“After the 'incident' of last week at least the teams were very united,” he added. “The first conclusion for me is that we were able to act together and it's not very often that even Red Bull was supportive of Toto!

“And honestly, I think it's a good point for us also to take position and to discuss with the other stakeholders. I think it's the first time the teams together showed something like this.”