Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff finds himself in hot waters with the FIA. A few days ago, the governing body announced that they were investigating the 51-year-old and his wife, Susie, for an alleged “conflict of interest“. As this topic continues to make headlines in the F1 community, veteran journalist Peter Windsor has given his take on the same. The F1 expert revealed who he believes could have put the Wolffs in trouble with the FIA.
While speaking via his official YouTube channel, Windsor said (as quoted by F1 Maximaal), “I have a feeling that Bernie Ecclestone could be behind it because the magazine in which the story about a certain comment by Wolff appeared is a magazine with which he is on good terms. Of course, I don’t know for sure, but that’s what I have a feeling. He could do something that naughty, I think“.
This issue came to light after a Business F1 magazine report claimed that rival bosses have raised concerns that the Wolffs have potentially passed information discussed at their private meetings to FOM executives.
The report added that these concerns escalated when Toto Wolff himself commented at a recent meeting. These were remarks that rival team bosses felt could have only come from the FOM.
Soon after the FIA released a statement to confirm that they were investigating the Wolffs, Susie issued a strong statement to express her disgust at the same. A snippet of her statement read,
“I am deeply insulted but sadly unsurprised by the public allegations that have been made this evening. It is disheartening that my integrity is being called into question in such a manner, especially when it seems to be rooted in intimidatory and misogynistic behavior, and focused on my marital status rather than my abilities“.
Rival F1 teams plead innocence in the matter involving Susie and Toto Wolff
Rival F1 teams pleaded their innocence after the FIA claimed they were launching an investigation because one of Mercedes’ rivals had issued a complaint to them. Soon after all the rival teams clarified their stance on this grave issue, Peter Windsor expressed his concerns with the way the FIA is conducting its investigation.
The journalist does not understand why the FIA had to make it public that they were investigating the Wolffs. He believes that with all of the other nine teams having claimed that they were not the ones to push the FIA to launch this investigation, nothing is likely to come out of it.
Since all of Mercedes’ rivals pleaded their innocence, Windsor presumably believes that Bernie Ecclestone could have a role to play in pushing the FIA to investigate the Wolffs because of how often the 93-year-old passes controversial remarks.
The British billionaire also had a huge role to play in reigniting the Crashgate scandal controversy. Ecclestone claimed that the FIA deliberately decided not to take any action against Renault to protect the integrity of the sport. This is not the only time that the former F1 honcho’s remarks have resulted in controversy. He has often also made contentious remarks about racism.
For example, Ecclestone once shockingly claimed (as quoted by CNN) that “Black people are more racist than what White people are“. These remarks unsurprisingly did not go down well with Lewis Hamilton, who is the only black driver in the sport.
