Mercedes considering legal action over FIA’s Toto Wolff ‘reputational damage’

Mercedes are reportedly considering taking action against the FIA for alleged damage to their reputation after the governing body investigated Toto Wolff.

The FIA announced on Tuesday that they would be looking into an alleged sharing of confidential information between Toto and Susie Wolff but after just two days, they ended the process having deemed there to be no breach.

But it is the manner in which the FIA went about it, first alleging that multiple team principals had complained and the lack of prior warning given to the team.

Mercedes contemplating FIA pushback

The FIA lit the fuse late on Tuesday evening when they announced to the media that they were investigating an alleged instance of “information of a confidential nature being passed to an F1 team principal from a member of FOM personnel.”

The team principal and FOM employee in question where Toto and Susie Wolff with the rumour originating from BusinessF1 magazine. Given the lack of credibility from that source, PlanetF1.com sought to clarify the reasons behind the investigation and were told by a prominent FIA source that multiple team principals had also complained.

This was later denied by the other nine teams who each put out an identical statement confirming they had raised no such complaint and gave their backing to Susie Wolff.

On Thursday, one day before the FIA’s prize gala in which Max Verstappen will receive his Drivers’ Championship trophy, the FIA announced that they were satisfied no breach had occurred and were reassured by FOM’s compliance management system.

But even after the investigation drew to a close, that is unlikely to be the end of the affair with the FIA upsetting both Mercedes and F1 in the way they handled the process.

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The same FIA source claimed a letter was sent to both Mercedes and F1 at the time of the media statement although Mercedes deny having ever received one.

Now it appears Mercedes could take action of their own with the BBC’s Andrew Benson tweeting that the Silver Arrows could seek redress from the FIA for the “reputational damage” it has caused on the company.

PlanetF1.com’s own enquiries have led us to believe that this claim is true.

Benson also claims that senior F1 figures are questioning the judgement of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and had previously suggested that FOM owners Liberty Media may look to breakaway from the FIA although F1 told PlanetF1.com this was false.

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