Toto Wolff criticises FIA for “great damage”; and asks why key staff are exiting

Last month, F1’s governing body launched an inquiry into the conduct of the couple after a magazine claimed rivals had alleged their relationship presented a conflict of interest in the sport. 

But after Mercedes’ nine rival teams united in denying making any complaints about the Wolff’s, the FIA announced it had dropped the investigation. 

Lewis Hamilton blasted the actions of the FIA as “unacceptable” and now Mercedes team principal Wolff has criticised the sport’s governing body. 

“The investigation opened and closed in two days has caused great damage,” Wolff told Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport. 

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

“My position is this. I can’t speak for Susie but she is someone who doesn’t give up, she has a steely determination. It’s not the first time she has faced difficulties, and she will get to the bottom of every court. 

"If one types ‘Susie Wolff’ on the web today, the investigation comes out as the first news: the bullet came from the rifle and can no longer go back inside.”

There has been upheaval at the FIA since the controversial investigation ended, with sporting director Steve Nielsen, the head of the FIA’s commission for women, Deborah Mayer, and single-seater technical director Tim Goss all resigning from their posts. 

“I think the FIA has many important tasks as an institution, the first of which is to govern with ethics, transparency and integrity,” Wolff added. 

“This includes how you run the sport together with F1 and the teams, but also how the rules are set and controlled.

“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. 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.”