F1 News: Ferrari Boss Slams FIA Over Wolff Investigations - "Embarrassing"

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has termed FIA's short investigation of Toto and Susie Wolff from last week as "quite embarrassing for the sport." The manner in which the governing body let the news out rather hastily, only to find no wrongdoings, has hurt the sport's reputation, according to Vasseur. 

Out of nowhere, the Mercedes team boss and F1 Academy managing director, were the center of attention after the FIA publicly announced that its compliance department was probing a potential conflict of interest between the team principal and the Formula One Management employee for exchanging confidential information. 

However, the matter was shelved within two days as if nothing had happened. The governing body gave out a statement saying it was satisfied with the process in place to restrict the sharing of confidential information. But the Wolffs were not taking the damage done to their reputation lightly. 

After the episode, Toto revealed that he was in an "active legal exchange" with the FIA. Speaking on the matter to Motorsport.com, Vasseur expressed that the entire episode was embarrassing and pointless since the probe had concluded shortly after the news broke out. He 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."

Fortunately for the sport, Vasseur revealed that it was the first time all teams in Formula 1 got together to support Mercedes and denied their role in the investigation Surprisingly, even Red Bull! 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.”