Fred Vasseur annoyed: Another dig from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff

It all started with a verbal dig that Toto Wolff directed at Ferrari. The Austrian team principal of Mercedes expressed surprise at the sheer number of updates coming out of Maranello and remarked during his home race in Spielberg: “In my opinion, they must be running out of money soon – because of the budget cap. Because we can’t do that.” He went on to say that the same rules should apply to everyone, before adding smugly: “Hopefully.”

Was this an accusation of cheating, hidden between the lines, aimed at his friend, the team principal from the Red camp? Vasseur reacted indignantly and stated at the team principals’ press conference at Silverstone that it was rather ironic where the remark had come from. “When Mercedes and Red Bull Racing develop, they’re geniuses. When we develop, we’re cheating.”

He didn’t know whether the Viennese man had been joking. When asked whether it was an accusation of cheating, he said: “If you assume that we’re exceeding the budget cap, then it certainly points in that direction...” And the engineer also made it clear that the two team principals had not yet discussed the matter. “It was better to avoid a conversation.”

Toto Wolff clarifies: “I wasn’t misquoted”

When asked about these comments by his German colleagues at ‘Sky’, Wolff retorted: “Fred needs to read the statements, not just the headlines. Then he’ll understand what I said and won’t always take everything so personally.” The 54-year-old emphasised that he had not been misquoted: “No, not at all. I said that they’ll probably have to hold back on the updates in the end, because a lot has been added to the car recently. There’s no question of cheating.”

“That’s just a statement of fact. But Fred can fly off the handle very easily; I know that’s the case – I’ve known him for 25 years,” Wolff added, raising a few eyebrows with his answer to the question of whether this would strain the friendship between the two team principals: “First and foremost, we’re competitors here, and sometimes you go through easier times and sometimes through more difficult ones.”

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