FIA investigate conflict of interest between F1 team leader & FOM official

[John S]

There's plenty of smoke, seemingly eminating from a Team Principals meeting, but is there really a fire?   

Merc F1 (Toto) & Susie Wolff are both highly indignant and have issued strong rebuttals, however did FIA really get a choice about investigating claims published in a BusinessF1 magazine article ( see web page link below, go to pages 10/11 of digital issue).

Oh yeah it's also another thing to add to the increasing pile of unrest between FIA & Liberty. 

The FIA announced on Tuesday night that they were looking into allegations “of information of a confidential nature being passed to an F1 team principal from a member of FOM personnel” following a report from BusinessF1 magazine that focused on Wolff and his wife Susie.

The report claimed that Susie, in her capacity as F1 managing director shared information with her husband – something she has since denied – and that Wolff let something slip during a recent team principal meeting.

The credibility of BusinessF1 magazine has often been questioned, leading many to wonder why the FIA had decided to launch such an investigation but a source familiar with the situation has now told PlanetF1.com that, while the media report was part of the reason the FIA opened the investigation, it was also initiated due to multiple team principals raising complaints.

The same source also alleges that both F1 and Mercedes were sent legal letters from the FIA’s compliance officers at the same time the media statement was sent out. Mercedes, however, has denied this claim and says they have received no such letter.

Selected paras courtesy Sam Cooper, PlanetF1.com, Today.


https://businessf1magazine.com/december-2023-free-digital-issue/

[Jericoke]

I have no idea what, if anything, was done wrong.

But having family/partners part of organizations that can't be sharing information is a bad look.

That being said why does FOM have secrets from the F1 teams?

[Andy B]

A shame they never investigated the 2021 result with such vigour.

[John S]

A shame they never investigated the 2021 result with such vigour.

Oh but they did Andy, and it resulted in the Race Directors departure.

Wonder if anyone will have to go this time - Susie, Stefano or even Toto?

Let's see what choices there may be if push come to shove - who'll go? :-

1 - Susie for passing on priveliged info, either way.
2 - Stefano for giving or receiving priveliged info.
3 - Toto for receiving/giving privileged info and stupidly using such info in plain sight. 

or 4 - A reprimand for anyone if found to be involved, as long as they agree to stop it. 

As they say 'you pays your money and takes your choice'.   

[cosworth151]

I agree with Jeri that the optics of having the spouse of a team principal on any kind of FIA oversight board aren't good. For example, the team could be alerted to any possible investigations of wrongdoings, allowing them to cover up as much as possible.

[Jericoke]

A shame they never investigated the 2021 result with such vigour.

Oh but they did Andy, and it resulted in the Race Directors departure.

Wonder if anyone will have to go this time - Susie, Stefano or even Toto?

Let's see what choices there may be if push come to shove - who'll go? :-

1 - Susie for passing on priveliged info, either way.
2 - Stefano for giving or receiving priveliged info.
3 - Toto for receiving/giving privileged info and stupidly using such info in plain sight. 

or 4 - A reprimand for anyone if found to be involved, as long as they agree to stop it. 

As they say 'you pays your money and takes your choice'. 

As if Toto is going to be forced out.

Even though the team is called Mercedes, and does have backing from Daimler, Toto owns the team, and he's the one keeping Mercedes in F1.  If he's gone, especially under controversy, I can easily imagine Mercedes packing up and taking their engines with them.

While I feel like F1 has done a great job of attracting new engine suppliers (Honda*, Ford/RBPT* and Audi), and could easily survive without Mercedes, it would be a big blow against the sport for a second brand considered 'Luxury' in the USA to leave the sport.

*Yes, we can debate if Honda/RBPT are technically new or not, but still, the sport has 5 non Mercedes power units lined up for the near future, which is more than they have now WITH Mercedes

[Dare]

Their secrets are safe


https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13025117/fia-drops-investigation-into-conduct-of-mercedes-team-principal-toto-wolff-and-his-wife-su

[John S]

So I may not have cast my net wide enough for the people to take a fall, it appears there may be another potential casualty, or head to roll, in this saga; well according to pitpass.com (see link below)

They suggest this weird scenario may have been orchestrated to embarass ben Sulayem rather than the Wolffs or anyone else on F1 grid. 

Golly!! FOM may have lost Bernie but his Machiavellian tendencies may still have practitioners about the place - and they are willing to act.    Albeit surreptitiously. 

Thing that really suprises me amongst all the loud cries of innocence is that neither Toto, Susie, Mercedes F1 or Daimler, to my knowledge, have issued any legal notice or libel proceedings against BusinessF1 - the publishers of original conflict of interest (by Mr & Mrs Wolff) claim.       

https://www.pitpass.com/76846/As-Lt-Columbo-might-say-Just-one-more-thing-Mr-and-Mrs-Wolff

[Jericoke]

I've finally read a little bit about this saga.

Suzie's FIA involvement is with the F1 Academy, the female racing division.  While they're expecting all the F1 teams to be involved in the F1 Academy (which I think is a good idea), I'm not really sure what 'secrets' the Wolffs would be be able to share regarding the F1 Academy.  That means, IF there's something afoot, then Suzie has knowledge about things beyond her purview which means someone told her something SHE shouldn't know, and isn't really her secret to keep.

As for 'getting' ben Sulayem, I can't say I've been a fan of his.  Part of it is a little bit of racism on my part, the culture he hails from has a bad track record with acceptance of many groups of people.  I'd hoped he was above that, but it seems like he wasn't (though not worse than Bernie TBH).  He was supposed to step away from F1 but seemed to always be there anyway.  I'd like to think if people are out to get him, it's for things he's actually done wrong instead of something manufactured.

Speaking of Bernie... he was very open that F1 was his hobby, he wasn't interested in becoming powerful for the sake of becoming powerful, but rather he enjoyed the game.  Maybe that's the same as being powerful for the sake of being powerful, but I really feel like Bernie enjoyed 'outdueling' genuinely powerful people, and F1 was a great place to do it without hurting as many  people as a politician or a typical business.  (Case in point, while Bernie desperately wanted Grand Prix run in 'glamorous' cities like NYC, London, Rome and Paris, he never forced it to happen in a way that is disruptive like the Vegas Grand Prix.  Liberty will F--- anyone over for a buck.  Bernie just F---ed over the people with money.)