Toto Wolff confirms Mercedes in ‘active legal exchange’ after FIA allegations

Jamie Woodhouse
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

Mercedes team boss and CEO Toto Wolff.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has confirmed that a “legal exchange” with the FIA is “active” regarding their recent investigation.

The FIA caused a stir by releasing a statement confirming their Compliance Department was investigating a potential conflict of interest involving a member of Formula One Management and an F1 team principal, this coming in the wake of a BusinessF1 Magazine report naming Toto and Susie Wolff.

PlanetF1.com sought to clarify the reasons behind the investigation, considering the lack of credibility from that publication, and were told by a prominent FIA source that multiple team principals had also complained. All teams later released identical statements to deny this and FIA confirmation that the investigation had been closed soon emerged.

Toto Wolff confirms Mercedes-FIA ‘active legal exchange’

The story did not end there though, with Wolff having now confirmed the speculation that Mercedes will look to explore their legal options in regards to this investigation.

With proceedings now active, Mercedes has requested respect for their upcoming period of silence on the topic as the matter will be officially addressed in due course.

“We understand that there is significant media interest in the events of this week,” said Wolff in a statement on Mercedes’ X account.

“We are currently in active legal exchange with the FIA.

“We await full transparency about what took place and why, and have expressly reserved all legal rights.

“Therefore we ask for your understanding that we will not be commenting officially for now, but we will certainly be addressing the matter in due course.”

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Susie Wolff also released a fresh statement just minutes before Mercedes confirmed their legal exchange, calling for change at the ‘simply not good enough’ FIA.

All nine of Mercedes’ rivals united by releasing an identical statement to deny involvement in any complaints to prompt the FIA’s investigation, writing: “We can confirm that we have not made any complaint to the FIA regarding the allegation of information of a confidential nature being passed between an F1 Team Principal and a member of FOM staff.

“We are pleased and proud to support F1 Academy and its managing director through our commitment to sponsor an entrant in our liveries from next season.”

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