Toto Wolff at centre of riot: heavy accusations from competition

As team boss/owner of the Mercedes F1 team, Toto Wolff is present at all the meetings the teams have among themselves. As a result, he possesses a lot of confidential knowledge, matters that do not always have to be shared directly with FOM and Liberty Media. The Austrian is married to Susie Wolff, who has been managing director of F1 Academy since last season. This women's racing class is also owned by FOM. In her position, Susie Wolff again receives a lot of confidential information about F1 Academy, FOM and also Formula 1.

FIA aware of concerns

Teams in F1 suspect the Wolff couple of exchanging confidential information among themselves. Some unnamed team bosses are said to have already indicated to the FIA that they are troubled by the conflict of interest. According to Business F1, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is aware of the growing concerns. But he reportedly has not yet figured out whether this is the usual sarcasm between the teams or whether there is really something going on. The Emirati is reportedly under intense pressure to act against the Wolff family.

The magazine spoke to several team bosses - on condition of anonymity. They refer, for example, to a consultation at which Wolff was also present, who suddenly told something that could only have been known thanks to having heard it from a source within the FOM. One team boss - known to have had a series of conflicts with Wolff - said: "They're saying, 'Hey, we can go and have an internal meeting', and the next thing, it's all over Greg Maffei's (boss of Liberty Media) desk because Toto told his wife, who in turn told Stefano [Domenicali], who's told Greg Maffei."

Conflict of interests 'not to be tolerated'

The team boss closed with: "Stefano's going to know what we said within 30 seconds." Another team boss also responded: "I believe it is illegal. I honeslty believe it is illegal. Certaintly, there's a massive conflict of interest at public company level. Apart from that I believe it's highly unethical."

According to Business F1, Wolff is known to have leaked confidential information before. For instance, the magazine states that it was Wolff who leaked to the media in Singapore '22 that Red Bull Racing had exceeded the budget cap, something the Austrian team did not know at the same time. "This is a time bomb, waiting to off potentially even more serious than what happened in Singapore last year," said an anonymous team boss.