Toto Wolff reckons the “very emotional” Fred Vasseur failed to interpret his comments about Ferrari and its upgrades in the 2026 Formula 1 campaign in the manner that they were intended.
This has been a developing storyline at the British Grand Prix, after Wolff revealed, last weekend in Austria, his surprise at the manner in which Ferrari has continuously brought upgrades this year.
It came after the Scuderia introduced several updates to Barcelona in June, its second such package of 2026, leading to Lewis Hamilton ending Mercedes’ perfect start to the year in Catalunya.
“We’re a little bit surprised that Ferrari can throw these huge updates at the car in the way they do,” said the Mercedes boss at the Red Bull Ring.
“In my opinion, they need to be running out of cost cap money soon, because we can’t do that.
“We’re simply lacking the buffer in the cost cap to be able to bring so many parts in the way they do.”
Watch: More Engine Mode Drama? | 2026 British GP Saturday
Those comments clearly then got under Vasseur’s skin as Friday at Silverstone saw him bite back and claim that Wolff was accusing Ferrari of cheating by bringing these upgrades early in the year.
“I found it quite ironic coming from Toto and Mercedes,” said the Ferrari team principal.
“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 [team]. I don’t know if it was a joke, but…
“If you think we overshoot the cost cap, for me it’s going into this direction [of accusing Ferrari of cheating].”
So that was put to Wolff after qualifying for Sunday’s British Grand Prix, where Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took pole ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in second and third.
“Fred is very emotional,” Wolff told Sky Sports. “If you would have read my comments, rather than just a headline, he would have seen that what I said was an observation and would be interesting to see how much updates one can pull out at the end of the season.
“But it’s just the emotionality that we all have and being passionate about team success, and I’m fine with that.”
When then asked if Vasseur therefore took his comments out of context, Wolff responded: “I know it was misunderstood.
“If I say things that I want to be understood, I will do so too, but in that case, I didn’t mean it really.”
It should come as no surprise that this spat is between the two dominant teams in F1, even though Wolff and Vasseur are known to have been good friends for several years.
So there is the possibility that this might affect said relationship, but Vasseur confirmed that will not be the case before telling Sky Sports Germany “we will have time to speak during the break”.
The summer break is set to commence in August after Silverstone, Spa and Budapest.
