Red Bull boss Christian Horner and other Formula One teams have denied raising a complaint about Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his wife Susie, head of the F1 Academy.
On Tuesday the governing FIA confirmed it was launching an investigation into “the allegation of information of a confidential nature being passed to an F1 team principal from a member of FOM [Formula One Management] personnel.”
Mercedes and Susie Wolff, who reports directly to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, rejected the allegation of a conflict of interest in separate statements of their own that evening.
The investigation was prompted by a report in F1 Business magazine, which alleged at least one team boss had raised concerns to the FIA after Toto Wolff supposedly made a statement in a meeting with information which could only have come from a high-ranking F1 employee.
On Wednesday, Mercedes’ nine rival teams all distanced themselves from the allegations.
First Horner, known to have a frosty rivalry with Toto Wolff, told Sky Sports he had made no complaint.
“We have a big rivalry on track [with Mercedes] but we haven’t raised any official complaint either about Susie or Toto or Mercedes to the FIA,” Horner said.
“In fact, Red Bull has been the team that has got most involved with F1 Academy since its inception, to the point that between the two Red Bull-owned teams, we’ll be entering three cars in 2024. So we’ve been working closely with Susie, who’s been doing a great job on F1 Academy.
“So I think we, like others, were quite surprised by the statement that came out last night, but it certainly wasn’t instigated or required or set off by Red Bull. We’ve not raised any official complaint or made any requests to the FIA or to FOM.
“As far as the other teams, I can’t talk on behalf of others. This is an FIA thing, they’ve taken this action, but as I say, certainly nothing to do with Red Bull.”
Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Williams and Haas, as well as Red Bull for themselves and on behalf of AlphaTauri, put out the following statement on Wednesday evening.
“We can confirm that we have not made any complaint to the FIA regarding the allegation of information of a confidential nature being passed between an F1 Team Principal and a member of FOM staff. We are pleased and proud to support F1 Academy and its managing director through our commitment to sponsor an entrant in our liveries from next season.”
The details of the FIA’s compliance investigation have not been confirmed at this stage.