Whilst seeking an explanation for the abandoned investigation into he and his wife, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff questions the numerous high-profile departures at the sport's governing body.

Barely into the new year and with a new contract in his pocket, Toto Wolff has picked up where he left off in December, questioning Mohammed ben Sulayem's management of the FIA.

The sport's governing body has seen its Sporting Director, Steve Nielsen, quit just one year into the role, and Technical Director Tim Goss leaving just weeks later.

The departures suggest that all is not well within an organisation that has seen its president at loggerheads with the sport's owners and the majority of teams over a number of issues, not least expanding the grid to eleven teams with Andretti.

Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Wolff stirs the pot as he questions the departures, though stops short of suggesting his explanation as to why they have happened.

"The FIA has many important tasks as an institution," he said, "the first of which is to govern with ethics, transparency and integrity. In the end, we all have to share the same goal: to make F1 even bigger in the world. For that to happen you need stability.

"It is not a good thing when people of experience and quality leave," he added. "Steve Nielsen, who knows the sport from every angle, left, and that's a bad blow. Then Tim Goss left, and in this way, Nicolas Tombazis loses a very good lieutenant. And still others have resigned.

"As teams, we cannot do anything about it," it is not up to us to decide how people manage their staff and their structure. But when all of a sudden such good people leave an organisation you create a vacuum, it's clear. You have to ask yourself why so many have left and have done so now. This includes how you run the sport together with F1 and the teams, but also how the rules are set and controlled."

The Austrian also took the opportunity to refer to the story that dominated the headlines for much of December, when the FIA announced an investigation into he and his wife following an unsubstantiated report in a magazine known to have an agenda.

As all ten teams united to condemn the move the investigation was dropped as quickly as it had begun, leaving the Wolffs, and just about everyone else, baffled as to why it went ahead if the first place.

"We have millions of people watching us, we have to be examples for what we say and do," he said. "The investigation, which opened and closed in two days, has done a lot of damage, and it's not what you expect from the F1 world in general.

"If we want to make the sport more and more professional, we have to try to bring transparency where there is none and set standards of the highest possible level.

"My position is this," he added. "I can't speak for Susie but she is a fighter, she has a steely determination. This is not the first time she has faced difficulties, and she will go all the way in every court of law. If someone types Susie Wolff on the web today, the investigation comes up as the first news item, the bullet went out of the gun and cannot come back in."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Chester, 31/01/2024 13:03

"Funny how we take the side of Wollf and throw MBS under the bus. High churn of management is a red flag for sure.

But what if these folks deserting the FIA are just abandoning MBS in favor of the "F1 insiders" because they know what side of their bread is buttered."

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2. Posted by trackrecords, 18/01/2024 7:19

"The sign of a bad boss is a high rate of staff "churn". Mohammed ben Sulayem must be doing something to be getting staff to move away. But how do you tell a rather rich leader that he has no idea how to foster a good working relationship...? "

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3. Posted by didaho, 18/01/2024 5:15

"Just asking questions of the questionable."

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4. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 18/01/2024 2:38

"@kenji - I’m sorry but none of that makes any sense to me.

The Wolffs are hardly likely to want to damage their own reputations in order to execute a sting on MBS! And MBS wasn’t even president of the FIA at the time of Massi’s screw-up in Abu Dhabi, so whatever Toto’s relationship is with the FIA president, he can’t be holding MBS responsible for that.

Susie Wolff’s role within F1 is not one that would give her access to information relevant to F1 principals. That’s assuming F1’s protocols for managing conflicts of interest weren’t robust enough. We are told that the FIA is satisfied that they are. So patently the story was nonsense.

If MBS fell into the trap of reacting to unsubstantiated rumours, then perhaps he really isn’t fit to lead the FIA. He certainly only has himself to blame, if he approved the “investigation”.

Finally, the publication concerned is known for continually making stuff up & pushing an agenda. The story had no byline against it and not a single named source. Most of the so-called sources were apparently ex-F1 people who the magazine describes as being “no friend of the Wolffs”. Funny that.

I’m interested to know what you think the Wolffs stand to gain by any of this, up to and including the possibility of MBS stepping down from his role of president. Maybe I’ve missed something but both of them appear to be highly successful in their roles & under no threat from the FIA president. They might not particularly like him or approve of his leadership style but I’m intrigued as to what you think might warrant such a conspiracy against him.
"

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5. Posted by kenji, 18/01/2024 0:37

"@ Ricardo-sanchez.....Plant a fake story through intermediaries, let it run, then issue an aggrieved challenge which elevates the third party as, evidenced by the general public, thus achieving a moral victory and a possible legal settlement not to say a weakened governing body. Old fashioned method exacerbated today by the social media milleu. Never underestimate the lengths some people will go to achieve recognition is such a competitive arena. Just take time to look at the end result....who is under the most pressure, from all angles, and who stands to gain. Why hasn't there been any legal challenges thrown at 'Business F1? Maybe there have but I'm not privy to that info. Abu Dhabi still features large in some quarters."

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6. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 17/01/2024 19:13

"@kenji - organisations don’t usually publicly announce an investigation that has the potential to damage someone’s reputation without first establishing if the allegations have any basis in fact. This was very unprofessional misstep by the FIA and calls into question the judgement of those who signed it off. The Wolffs appear to have every right to be upset and to receive a full explanation and an apology.

There would have been no uproar at all if the FIA had simply issued a statement to say that it doesn’t comment on unsubstantiated allegations and that no complaints had been filed.

How can a negative story about the Wolffs be part of a plan by someone to “wreak vengeance”? Who is trying to get revenge - on whom - and why?

"

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7. Posted by ClarkwasGod, 17/01/2024 15:23

"@ Kenji
The article clearly states that this came from a magazine with an agenda (Business f1, the October edition, I think). Why could the FIA not investigate privately, rather than trumpeting first, then checking if the facts were genuine?"

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8. Posted by kenji, 17/01/2024 10:59

"A spurious allegation was made [ presumably ] and the FIA did the right thing and set up a primary enquiry...found nothing and withdrew any further interest. Can you imagine the hoo har if they had done nothing? I see it as most likely a carefully planned effort to wreak vengeance and seek change in the FIA by certain individuals and this is just a preliminary shot across the bows. Maybe I'm totally wrong but it all seems to be too pat. I notice that the original allegations have not been made public in detail and that there have been no indications that the Wolves are going after them in the first instance as publishers!!!"

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9. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 17/01/2024 8:36

"The management & running of the FIA isn’t really Wolff’s concern unless/until it affects the way races are run or regulations are applied. Unless it’s a topic that has an impact on his team, Wolff would do himself a favour by staying out of the internal FIA politics. Where he and his wife do have a legitimate interest is over the ridiculous, aborted FIA investigation into Mrs Wolff. The FIA seems to have made a huge mistake in the way it handled that particular matter. I don’t think MBS is going to come out of it very well. The lawyers on both sides will be rubbing their hands…"

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10. Posted by ClarkwasGod, 16/01/2024 13:49

"If MBS hoped the Wolff saga would be quietly forgotten, he's very much mistaken Both Mr. and Mrs Wolff have every right to get an explanation - which needs to be put into the public domain by the FIA - something they're not exactly fond of doing......."

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11. Posted by Superbird70, 16/01/2024 13:37

"The goal is to make F1 'bigger' not better. Speaks volumes."

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Wolff questions high profile departures at the FIA

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