The FIA announced on Tuesday that its compliance department was looking into allegations in a questionable post suggesting Mercedes team boss Wolff and his wife Suzy, who heads the FOM’s FOM academy, were exchanging confidential information.
The investigation caught all parties involved by surprise and sparked an angry reaction from Wolff, Mercedes and Formula 1 management. Formula 1 and Mercedes rejected the allegations and condemned the lack of communication from the governing body regarding its pending investigations.
Amid speculation that rival teams had complained to the FIA about Wolff, all nine remaining Formula 1 teams disputed their standing behind the investigation with statements supporting the pair on Wednesday.
The FIA backtracked on Thursday and announced that there would be no formal investigation after being satisfied that there had been no “unauthorised disclosure of classified information”.
In a statement issued by Mercedes on Friday, Toto Wolff said his team was in an “active legal exchange” with the governing body after his and his wife’s reputations were damaged by this week’s events.
Given the potential legal consequences of this dispute, Wolf said there will be no further official comment at this time.
“We recognize that there is significant media interest in this week’s events,” Wolff’s statement said.
Photography: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport pictures
Toto Wolff, Team Principal and CEO of Mercedes-AMG
“We are currently in active legal exchange with the FIA.
He added: “We expect full transparency about what happened and why it happened, and we explicitly reserve all legal rights.
He added: “We therefore ask you to understand that we will not comment officially at this time, but we will certainly address the matter in due course.”
Susie Wolff also made further comments on the matter on Friday, criticizing the FIA for its lack of transparency.
“Over the course of two days, my integrity was hinted at publicly and through media briefings, but no one from the FIA spoke to me directly,” she said.
“I may have been collateral damage in a failed attack on someone else, or been the target of a failed attempt to discredit me personally, but I went to great lengths to have my reputation called into question by a baseless press release.
She added: “This incident is taking place so far without transparency or accountability.”
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