Susie Wolff’s complaint against FIA won’t be “brushed under the carpet”

Susie Wolff will not back down in her legal action against the FIA over allegations made about her last year, says her husband, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

She has begun legal proceedings in France over statements she claims the FIA made about her three months earlier. The FIA said at the time it was investigating the pair over an alleged conflict of interests, then said two days later the matter had been dropped.

Last year she vowed “I will not allow myself to be intimidated and intend to follow up until I have found out who has instigated this campaign and misled the media.” Her husband said today she is determined to pursue her case.

“Susie is a strong woman,” Wolff told Sky. “She doesn’t take anything from anyone and has always followed through on her convictions and values. And that’s the case here.

“She’s very unemotional about it and pragmatic. She feels wrong was done. And the court needs to hear that. Nothing’s going to bring you off that path. That’s how her character is.”

The case is the latest in a series of controversies to hit Formula 1 this year. Earlier this week the FIA Ethics Committee dismissed allegations against president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Red Bull is still grappling with the fall-out from its investigation of team principal Christian Horner, who was also cleared, but faces an appeal.

Lewis Hamilton said yesterday the rows reflected badly on F1 and gave his support for Susie Wolff.

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Her husband acknowledged the rows have overshadowed the start of the new season.

“It is the case and the fact that all year now we have been talking about cases of [inadequate] transparency and various other factors that are just not great and this is what Lewis referred to,” he said. “We should talk about the greatness of the sport, where we are and not the other stuff. But it needs to be pointed to.”

“Susie started the process many months ago, has done it very diligently as far as I’m concerned, and will go all the way,” he added. “I think it matters for her most to find out what happened and people take accountability and responsibility and things and not brushed under the carpet.

“I think we as a sport need to do that in all areas, whether it is Susie’s case or whether it’s some case with the other teams. Overall, I think the sport has such a massive platform. We’re doing so well and maybe sometimes we need to take it out of the jurisdictions of our sport into the real world and see what it does.”

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