Toto Wolff said his wife Susie is ready to take the FIA “all the way” after she filed a criminal complaint against Formula One’s governing body.
Susie, 41, announced ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix that she has started legal proceedings in France following the FIA’s controversial conflict of interest inquiry into her and husband Toto in December.
The probe into the Wolffs arose after a report in Business F1 magazine claimed that the grid’s other team principals were concerned Susie’s husband Toto was benefiting from information shared by his wife, who runs the all-female F1 Academy series.
But two days after the FIA announced its compliance department was “looking into” the allegations, the federation dropped its inquiry.
“Susie is a strong woman and she doesn’t take anything from anyone, and has always followed through on her convictions and values, and that is the case here,” said Wolff, the Mercedes team principal.
“She is very unemotional about it, and pragmatic, and she feels wrong was done and the court needs to hear that. Nothing is going to bring her off that path, that is how her character is.
“Susie started that process many months ago and done it very diligently, as far as I am concerned, and she will go all the way.
“It matters for her most to find out what happened and people take accountability and responsibility and things are not brushed under the carpet – and we, as a sport, need to do that in all areas whether that is Susie’s case or some cases with the other teams.”
Susie’s legal action follows separate controversies surrounding Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem.
Horner was exonerated of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female colleague by the F1 team’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH, while Ben Sulayem was also cleared by the FIA’s ethics committee of meddling with the result of last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and attempting to block the certification of F1’s inaugural race on the Las Vegas strip in November.
On Thursday, Lewis Hamilton provided his support for Susie, before launching an attack against F1’s “male-dominated” world, which he claimed has “no accountability”.
— Susie Wolff (@Susie_Wolff) March 20, 2024
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Wolff, 52, speaking to Sky Sports, continued: “It is the fact that all year now we have been talking about cases in transparency, and various other factors that are just not great and this is what Lewis referred to.
“We should talk about the greatest of the sport, and not the other stuff but it needs to be pointed to.
“I don’t think there is such a thing as a watershed moment, but a certain stage we shouldn’t be just getting those hits and accepting them in all areas to make this sport as transparent as it should be, considering its importance in the world.
“This sport has a massive platform. We are doing so well and we sometimes we need to take it out of the jurisdiction of our sport and into the real world and see what it does.”
The FIA has been approached for comment.
