F1: Red Bull looks to sue Toto Wolff and others

Speaking to RTL, Red Bull’s Dr. Helmut Marko outlined some of his suspicions:

“It’s strange. A Mercedes employee switched to the FIA, processed these documents for the cost cap at Mercedes and was then responsible for checking at the FIA.

“In our opinion, there is definitely a compliance violation or at least an indication of compliance violation.

“The whole thing doesn’t make a good impression…

“We hire accountants to have the necessary security here.”

Toto Wolff, weeks before any FIA announcement, even described Red Bull’s overspending as an open secret.

Alleged Toto Wolff moles in the FIA – Attorney Shaila-Ann Rao and President Mohammed ben-Sulayem who came out of nowhere to get the President position when Jean Todt retired

The leak and subsequent over exaggeration by rival team owners running their mouth to the media caused irrefutable damage to Red Bull and World Driving Champion Max Verstappen.

Will they sue the FIA and mouthy team owners for compensation? If they do, the off-season will get even more intriguing than normal.

October 2, 2022

(GMM) Red Bull says it is looking into its legal options after being openly accused of cheating by its two key Formula 1 rivals.

To the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung, Dr Helmut Marko even suspects that a “mole” may have fed confidential data about the team’s alleged budget cap breaches to Mercedes and Ferrari.

“Where did Toto Wolff get these numbers from?” said the Austrian, referring to the leaked number of an alleged $7 million budget cap breach in 2021.

“They are figures that are only with the FIA, so someone must have passed them on and that is much more worrying to us.

“The reputational damage is enormous,” Marko insisted.

Red Bull’s rivals, however, are calling for severe penalties for the alleged breach.

“Sending out the wrong signals now will have devastating consequences,” Wolff is quoted by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

“All we know is that we were ripped off with the safety car in Abu Dhabi and now we’re the victim again. If there is not a severe punishment now, we can forget about this budget theatre.”

Ferrari sporting boss Laurent Mekies added: “$7 million is 70 engineers, and 70 engineers brings you a lot of laptime.”

Team boss Christian Horner says Red Bull would look into whether the energy drink company-owned outfit has been defamed.

“I would be intrigued to know where their source of information for these fictitious claims have come from,” he said. “I mean, they’re hugely defamatory.

“It’s not a coincidence that Max (Verstappen) has his first strike of the world championship here,” Horner added in Singapore.

“So unless there is a clear withdrawal of those statements, we will be taking it incredibly seriously and looking at what the options available to us are.”

Red Bull has their lawyers preparing a lawsuit to sue Toto Wolff (GER) and others for defamation.

A withdrawal or apology from Mercedes’ Wolff would appear to be highly unlikely.

“There will be an investigation and everything else is just noise,” he said.

Red Bull’s explanation for the supposed budget cap breach is that many engineers and personnel were transferred to the company’s non-F1 activities, including Red Bull Advanced Technologies.

“The question is whether or not some employees fall under the budget cap,” Marko said.

“We have several companies that don’t all work for Formula 1,” he explained. “Some people have been transferred to another department and from our point of view you cannot include those costs.”

October 1, 2022

On Sky TV Christian Horner was very direct about the “defamatory” and “unacceptable” lies Toto Wolff and other teams have said regarding Red Bull breaching the 2021 cost cap and said it will consider taking action against rival Formula 1 teams if they do not withdraw those comments.

See related article.

Speaking in Singapore on Saturday morning, an angry Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that his squad had taken a dim view of the remarks made and was ready to consider options if Mercedes and Ferrari did not back track.

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner is chewing at the bit, ready and eager to sue other teams, especially Toto Wolff and Mercedes, who are said to have moles inside the FIA. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

“Unless there is a clear withdrawal of those statements, we will be taking it incredibly seriously and looking at what the options available to us are,” said Horner.

“It is absolutely unacceptable to be making comments of the type that were made yesterday, that are totally defamatory to the team, to the brands, and even to Formula 1.”

Horner explained that he was especially baffled about where rivals had got their information from about potential rule breaches, when even Red Bull did not know yet if there was a problem.

“It is a private submission between the team and the FIA,” said Horner. “So how on earth can any team know the detail of our submission? How on earth can any team know that a team is in breach or not?

“We don’t even know if we’re in breach. We don’t even know until next week, until the process has been completed.”

“Perhaps, when these accusations are made, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. And we take umbrage, and extremely seriously, the remarks that have been made.

“Is it any coincidence that Max has his first shot at winning a world title, and here we are talking nothing but cost caps rather than the phenomenal performance that he has had this year.

“I think it’s an underhand tactic that’s been employed to detract from perhaps a lack of performance on track this year. And of course, when references are made to last year, this year, next year, we’re going to take that extremely seriously.

“This is an issue for the FIA to deal with, but also an issue for Red Bull to consider what our position is with those comments that have been made.”

Horner stands by his claim that he believes Red Bull is under the $145 million limit, even though the investigation process remains ongoing.

“We made the submission in March, we stand absolutely 100% behind that submission that we are below the cap.

“Of course, that submission has to be signed off by our auditors and obviously, ours is one of the big three. And then it goes through a process with the FIA.

“We’re a little bit like an audit where there are questions and interpretations that are raised and discussed. That process is ongoing with the FIA, who haven’t obviously completed their process at this point in time. I think they made that clear in a statement they put out yesterday evening.

“So we await with interest to see the final outcome of that process, which hopefully is in the near future, but we remain absolutely confident that we’ve absolutely complied with the cap.”