Mercedes And Ferrari Team Principals Receive Formal Warnings From FIA

Friday, 24 November 2023 at 14:00

Mercedes and Ferrari team principals Toto Wolff and Frederic Vasseur received a warning from FIA following the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The two team principals received a formal warning related to the FIA Press Conference on Thursday 16 November 2023 that took place right after the FP1 session at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

The FP1 session had to be stopped just after 9 minutes of running as it was interrupted by the incident of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who ran over a loose manhole cover.

The incident completely damaged Sainz's car, which meant he would have to change multiple parts of his car, costing the team more than a million dollars.

Clearly annoyed, Vasseur reacted to the incident during the press conference, saying: "We f***d up the session for Carlos. We won’t be part of FP2, for sure. I think it’s just unacceptable for F1 today."

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Following his angry outburst, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was asked to comment on the incident, and that could possibly be a black eye for F1.

Wolff then went on a rant saying the incident would mean nothing in the grand scheme of things: "And then you’re speaking about a f***ing drain cover that’s been undone that’s happened before, that’s nothing."

The official FIA document details that both team principals used language that was inconsistent with the values defined by the organization.

"FIA regards language of this type to be unacceptable moving forward, particularly when used by participants in the sport who have a high public profile and who are seen by many, especially younger, followers of the sport, as role models, and that in future the FIA will not tolerate the use of such language in FIA forums by any stakeholder."

While both team principals have used inappropriate language, FIA acknowledged "mitigating circumstances" and issued only a formal warning.