The 2023 Formula 1 season left Mercedes to wish for this season to end sooner as they planned the work on their W15, but not all was over for Toto Wolff who got caught in the middle of a scandal that soon turned into a war between the FIA and the F1 teams.
After Susie Wolff, the managing director of F1 Academy was accused of sharing confidential information with her husband, the FIA decided to start an investigation that soon turned into the entire F1 against the authority of the sport while Lewis Hamilton attacked the federation at their very own gala.
Toto Wolff attacks FIA for coming after his family
Susie Wolff has been one of the only women in Formula 1 to have a leadership position in F1 Academy and work directly with the FIA to bring more women into the sport and conduct the championship that Marta Garciá won this season. However, the integrity of Wolff was accused soon after which caused Toto Wolff to rage.
Lewis Hamilton defended the Mercedes team with all his strength at the FIA Gala, while Toto Wolff and Co. planned their next step of attack to sue the FIA. After the “misogynistic” allegations against Susie Wolff, all the teams put out statements similar to one another mentioning they were not the ones to tip off the FIA about confidential information being shared.
However, this has not sat well with the millionaire and Mercedes team principal who had to watch his team lose the image they have made in the sport for the longest amount of time. However, soon the situation escalated bringing his family into the war.
🚨 | Toto Wolff on the FIA investigation:
“When I’m caught in the crossfire, that’s no problem…
“But when you go after my family, it’s a different level. An absurd accusation was created out of nowhere.
“It was a personal attack that crossed a red line.”
— formularacers (@formularacers_) December 14, 2023
Wolff soon made a statement saying, “When I’m caught in the crossfire, that’s no problem. But when you go after my family, it’s a different level. An absurd accusation was created out of nowhere. It was a personal attack that crossed a red line.”
Wolff has stated he is not the one to mess with when it comes to his family and has made hints of a probable legal case suing the FIA coming soon.
What was the Susie Wolff-FIA controversy?
Susie Wolff was caught in the middle of a scandal right before her birthday when the FIA accused her of sharing confidential information about the 2024 cost cap with Toto Wolff. However, this soon would be proven wrong after all the teams stated to not be the ones to have tipped off the FIA and reports of Ben Sulayem and Wolff’s fights came to light.
FIA drops investigation into conduct of Toto and Susie Wolff after finding no conflict of interest possible 🚨
The move comes 48 hours after FIA, F1’s governing body, announced its compliance department was looking into allegations against the Wolffs ▪️ pic.twitter.com/zrzPqsq4oe
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 8, 2023
This proved the motive behind it was to target the Mercedes team and Toto Wolff but it soon took a turn for the worst as Hamilton made an appearance at the Gala to take his third runner-up award but instead bashed the Federation for the havoc they caused. Although it soon settled down, Mercedes seems to have no plans of backing down from the situation.