Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari Formula 1 team principal, called FIA investigation into Susie and Toto Wolff “quite embarrassing” for the sport. He maintains that the authorities shall have done in quietly.
Last week, the FIA announced a probe into a potential conflict of interest. It reported that compliance department is investigating a team principal and FOM employee for exchanging confidential information. It named Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his wife Susie Wolff who is the head of F1 Academy.
In less than 48 hours after the announcement, FIA published second statement clearing both of the allegations. However, Wolffs gave a stringent response and claimed that the public nature of it affected their reputation.
Vasseur, Wolff’s Ferrari counterpart, believes that the whole incident was “quite embarrassing” and unnecessary. The FIA went public regarding the probe and soon after it cleared the Wolffs. It depicts that there had no need to go public with it.
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“I think this story is quite embarrassing for our sport,” Vasseur said.
“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 calls it a blessing in disguise
FIA launched an investigation into Susie & Wolff couple suggesting that rival teams reported it to authorities. However, all nine teams published their statement collectively in favor of Susie Wolff. Additionally, they rejected any notion of an F1 team behind the investigation.
Vasseur termed it a blessing in disguise as it helped all 10 team to put theri weight behind a single agenda. He called it a rare occurrence of F1.
He added: “After the incident of last week at least the teams were very united.
“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.”
