Fred Vasseur hits back at Toto Wolff over Ferrari F1 upgrade ‘cheating’ suggestion

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has clapped back at Formula 1 rival Mercedes after his counterpart Toto Wolff questioned the Italian team’s rate of upgrades this season. 

After the Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff pointed the finger at Ferrari amid its aggressive car development following a flurry of upgrades and suggested the Maranello squad should be “running out of money soon”. 

Wolff’s comments were a reference to the $215m budget caps teams must adhere to throughout the course of a season when bringing updates to their cars. 

“I found it quite ironic from Toto, coming from Toto and Mercedes,” Vasseur told media including Crash.net on Friday at the British Grand Prix. 

“When Red Bull is developing, or when Mercedes is developing, they are genius. When we are developing, we are cheating. I think you have to calm down with this. We didn't bring more parts than Red Bull or another one. I don't know if it was a joke, but…”

When asked if he thinks Wolff was accusing Ferrari of cheating, Vasseur replied: “If you think that we overshoot the cost cap, for me, it's going into this direction.”

Ferrari brought a major upgrade to Miami, which was followed by three circuit-specific updates to Monaco, and an eight-item package in Barcelona which aided Lewis Hamilton’s memorable victory. 

A further four updates followed in Austria, along with Ferrari’s first ADUO-influenced engine upgrade, but the team had a tough race with Hamilton and Charles Leclerc only finishing fifth and eighth. 

Ferrari has introduced a further update at Silverstone, with Hamilton making a positive start to his home race by topping Friday’s sole practice session. 

Vassuer was quizzed on Ferrari’s upgrade push throughout the press conference and was visibly getting more and more irritated with each question that came his way. 

“I think it was better to avoid to speak,” he responded when asked if he had spoken to his friend Wolff about his remarks. 

When asked by Crash.net if rivals talking about Ferrari gives him any satisfaction as it points to the good job his team is doing, Vasseur replied: “Yeah, sure. But keep in mind the comments after Austria. After Barcelona, we were at the top. After Austria, we were nowhere. 

“After the FP1, where you don't know the level of fuel of the other teams, the upgrades are magic. You just have to stay calm with this. 

“We are at the beginning of the car [development]. We have still a lot of room of performance in the setup, in the tyre management, and sometimes much bigger than the upgrades that we are bringing. 

“It means that sometimes you can bring an upgrade, the upgrade is working, but you are doing a mistake on the setup and you are out of the pace. We just have to stay calm.”