Toto Wolff accused of leaking/receiving confidential information

[TFSA]

Also, the BBC article is obviously written by someone who doesn't understand the history of F1.

In your opinion, and I have to say I don't agree.

You might want to take time to read up on why the FIA and FOG/Commercial Rights are split into two the way they are today in the first place.

It was basically forced by EU (or rather, F1 agreed to it, in exchange for the EU ending their investigation into the cartel like behaviors of the sport). What exactly makes you believe the EU is just gonna let FOG and liberty reclaim all of that? The EU isn't gonna trust the FOG with that again. Especially not how they are acting right now. The teams and FOMs unwillingness to allow Andretti into the fold is basically proof that they can't be trusted running it themselves as one organisation again. The EU is gonna take one look at that and basically say "Still acting like a cartel we see? Obviously you obviously haven't learned your lesson!"

That leaves only one choice for the teams and the FOG if they want to split from the FIA: Leave the EU. What exactly that entails i can only guess, but I'd say that it would, at the very least, mean no races in the EU, and likely also the inability to show F1 on TV in the EU. That's gonna kill the sport. So ain't happening.

(Edit: Changed FOM to FOG, since it's technically the Formula One Group, with Formula One Management being a subsidiary)

[ThijsMuis]

.

Using media stories to conduct investigations and lying to say it was teama that made conplaints.That's a huge problem.
That also fails Ethics code, doesn't matter if rules can be changed anytime as what's the point in having it if you make it up as you go?

Another big question, people is saying it's the papers fault. Where did the paper get the story from? FIA president would be my guess.

Rules aren't made up as they go. You just confuse rules and guidelines. And the guidelines even say that they don't compromise Ethics Committees discretion.

Also, please quit the wild speculations (bolded). We're here to argue the facts, not conspiracy theories. People taking wild guesses at people leaking information, doesn't do anything for the discussion.

You want to write pages of speculation.
I also speculate in this.
It's not wild to connect FIA president.
If is OK to start investigations on stories you read in papers there would be much more problems in F1.
Was team statements and Susie etc statements for businessf1, or was it a message to the FIA?
Of course was for FIA.

[mendis]

Having two members of a family in an organisation, that requires maintaining confidentiality of information which strictly belongs to the respective departments, is always a problem. Especially when those members are spouses of each other. I don't see how this is acceptable and why people are being naive in believing that human beings that are partners/spouses can manage such confidentiality. I won't believe it for a second, let alone defending them. It's imperative for organizations to take steps of investigating such matters, even if they are rumours. Disregarding it would be criminal and constitutes being party to it.

[Mosin123]

Having two members of a family in an organisation, that requires maintaining confidentiality of information which strictly belongs to the respective departments, is always a problem. Especially when those members are spouses of each other. I don't see how this is acceptable and why people are being naive in believing that human beings that are partners/spouses can manage such confidentiality. I won't believe it for a second, let alone defending them. It's imperative for organizations to take steps of investigating such matters, even if they are rumours. Disregarding it would be criminal and constitutes being party to it.

And what confidential information would an f1 acadamy manager have that would be of use to an f1 team? Are people worried she is going to tell Toto what women driver is the best......

[RonMexico]

Are people really up in arms because the FIA were carrying out due diligence?

[Sieper]

I think we can find these same people would champion Gerry Horner taking up the role for female empowerment advisor within FOM, this would improve, dare I say, spice up, the sport

[CHT]

Teams can claim they didn't make any "Official" complaints to FIA, but that doesn't mean no one raises informal concerns or complains to the FIA about potential conflicts of interest. Just like LH claim no official contact from his management to RBR.

I think FIA has already achieved its objective without the need to fire a single shot. Going forward Suzie and Toto will inevitably feel they are under surveillance

[mendis]

Having two members of a family in an organisation, that requires maintaining confidentiality of information which strictly belongs to the respective departments, is always a problem. Especially when those members are spouses of each other. I don't see how this is acceptable and why people are being naive in believing that human beings that are partners/spouses can manage such confidentiality. I won't believe it for a second, let alone defending them. It's imperative for organizations to take steps of investigating such matters, even if they are rumours. Disregarding it would be criminal and constitutes being party to it.

And what confidential information would an f1 acadamy manager have that would be of use to an f1 team? Are people worried she is going to tell Toto what women driver is the best......

You can speculate all that you want until cows come home. Assuming any position that can lead to Conflict of interest, is an invitation to disharmonious situation and they both knew it.

If FIA is serious about hunting down illegalities, they should get the narco analysis tests done on parties involved.

[ValeVida46]

Anyone within the FIA can read that article and refer it as an alleged breach.

And if you want to do those involved a favour to make everything go away nice and quickly then the way to do it is to open a case and close it saying in essence that it is rubbish. We looked at it and there is nothing there.

So I'm not sure how they breached their own ethics or how this means they must investigate everything in the papers. Whether the FIA were trying to do things the right way or just being clowns is pure speculation at this point but what is clear is that if the FIA were trying to put this to bed quickly, they did it without communicating it to anyone and without ensuring that it was clear they were just looking as a precaution and that there was no suggestion of wrong doing as of yet, to protect those parties involved.

There is a format for making complaints.

If reading a BusinessF1 article and then making a complaint utilising the FIA guidelines, it will be the first time the FIA has done so. Unless you have a precedent for previous FIA investigations using a news story as the source of motivation to open investigations?
The impropriety here is clear, as is the abuse of power.

As I've said before, all you have to do now is make up a story and feed it to crash/mail/sun/businessf1, and you have your FIA investigation.
Only this sort of story comes up regularly from these outlets. So why is it ok now?
The impropriety comes from the selective investigative power.

As Mercedes have said, there was "off-record briefing" by the FIA to implicate Susie and Toto. Both were not informed prior to the investigation being started.
Article 2.2.2 States clearly that if there is a potential risk of conflict of interest that the individual may not continue their duties.
The FIA would have known this prior to Susie Wolff's appointment.
Embarrassingly for the FIA 2.2.3a then goes on to state that...

Thus, he may not take part, in particular, in any decision of an individual nature

Susie is not a he.

Further...

2.2.4 In the case where the duties are performed by an FIA Party for the FIA, it is his responsibility to submit an “FIA Disclosure of Interests Form” to the Ethics Committee when he holds one of the following positions or exercises one of the following mandates:
 President or member of the World Councils, of the Senate, of the Audit Committee, of the Ethics Committee, of the FIA judicial and disciplinary bodies, of the Nominations Committee, of the Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee or of any body dealing with the allocation of grants

Formula academy falls under the allocation of grants.

So from the code of ethics as listed by the FIA, they have failed on several counts.
Namely:

1.1 through to 1.4 relating to dignity of the sport and it's competitors. A clean sweep fail.
ARTICLE 1 – Dignity
1.1 Safeguarding the dignity of the individual is a
fundamental requirement of the FIA.
1.2 There shall be no discrimination between
participants to the FIA activities on the basis of race,
skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social
origin, language, religion, philosophical or political
opinion, family situation or disability.
1.3 No practice detrimental to the physical or mental
integrity of the participants in the FIA activities will be
tolerated. In compliance with the FIA Anti‐Doping
Regulations, all doping practices are strictly prohibited
within the framework of the competitions organised by
the FIA Parties and Third Parties.
1.4 All forms of harassment against participants to the
FIA activities, be it physical, mental, professional or
sexual, are prohibited.
- Fail

2.4 The FIA Parties and Third Parties shall use due care
and diligence in fulfilling their mission. They must not
act in a manner likely to tarnish the reputation of the
FIA. - Fail.

2.5 The FIA Parties and Third Parties should not be
involved with firms or persons whose activity is
inconsistent with the principles set out in the FIA
Statutes, Regulations and this Code - Fail

ARTICLE 4 – Confidentiality
The FIA Parties and Third Parties shall also treat as
confidential or secret any information, which is not
public, communicated to them in the exercise of their
duties. Any information or opinion shall be divulged only
in accordance with the principles, directives and
objectives of the FIA and its Members - Fail

5.1 The FIA Parties and Third Parties shall see to it that
the principles of this Code are applied. Fail

ARTICLE 6 – Amendments to the Code of Ethics
Amendments to the Code shall be decided only by the
General Assembly.

So they can't make it up as they go along as some posters have suggested. It needs to be an agreed upon by the General assembly.
All to be found under the Code of Ethics.
https://www.fia.com/ethics-committee

There are more but I'm outta time and can't be asked to cite any further FIA failings in this mess.

[Mosin123]

Having two members of a family in an organisation, that requires maintaining confidentiality of information which strictly belongs to the respective departments, is always a problem. Especially when those members are spouses of each other. I don't see how this is acceptable and why people are being naive in believing that human beings that are partners/spouses can manage such confidentiality. I won't believe it for a second, let alone defending them. It's imperative for organizations to take steps of investigating such matters, even if they are rumours. Disregarding it would be criminal and constitutes being party to it.

And what confidential information would an f1 acadamy manager have that would be of use to an f1 team? Are people worried she is going to tell Toto what women driver is the best......

You can speculate all that you want until cows come home. Assuming any position that can lead to Conflict of interest, is an invitation to disharmonious situation and they both knew it.

If FIA is serious about hunting down illegalities, they should get the narco analysis tests done on parties involved.

I am not specualting on any thing, I am asking you, why a Womens f1 acadamy manager would in any way shape or form be handling confidential information regarding the F1 world championship?

[f1jcw]

Having two members of a family in an organisation, that requires maintaining confidentiality of information which strictly belongs to the respective departments, is always a problem. Especially when those members are spouses of each other. I don't see how this is acceptable and why people are being naive in believing that human beings that are partners/spouses can manage such confidentiality. I won't believe it for a second, let alone defending them. It's imperative for organizations to take steps of investigating such matters, even if they are rumours. Disregarding it would be criminal and constitutes being party to it.

And what confidential information would an f1 acadamy manager have that would be of use to an f1 team? Are people worried she is going to tell Toto what women driver is the best......

You can speculate all that you want until cows come home. Assuming any position that can lead to Conflict of interest, is an invitation to disharmonious situation and they both knew it.

If FIA is serious about hunting down illegalities, they should get the narco analysis tests done on parties involved.

I remember a time, with Ferrari engine gate and some of the budget cap mods clamped down spurious claims of wrong doing.

If they need to clamp down of illegalities then they first need to look at employees switching between fia and teams and also the conflict of 2 teams being developed by the same design studio.

[mendis]

And what confidential information would an f1 acadamy manager have that would be of use to an f1 team? Are people worried she is going to tell Toto what women driver is the best......

You can speculate all that you want until cows come home. Assuming any position that can lead to Conflict of interest, is an invitation to disharmonious situation and they both knew it.

If FIA is serious about hunting down illegalities, they should get the narco analysis tests done on parties involved.

I am not specualting on any thing, I am asking you, why a Womens f1 acadamy manager would in any way shape or form be handling confidential information regarding the F1 world championship?

As much as I know of the corporate World, there is always something that is regarded as Confidential and you can sometimes laugh at some matters, but there is always some logic. So once you sign confidentiality agreement as part of the employment contract, you are bound by it. There could be somethings related to commercial like sponsorship offers, sale and supplier agreements in Women's F1 academy, which are in conflict to F1 matters or still under consideration in a bidding process. Things like that.

[Mosin123]

You can speculate all that you want until cows come home. Assuming any position that can lead to Conflict of interest, is an invitation to disharmonious situation and they both knew it.

If FIA is serious about hunting down illegalities, they should get the narco analysis tests done on parties involved.

I am not specualting on any thing, I am asking you, why a Womens f1 acadamy manager would in any way shape or form be handling confidential information regarding the F1 world championship?

As much as I know of the corporate World, there is always something that is regarded as Confidential and you can sometimes laugh at some matters, but there is always some logic. So once you sign confidentiality agreement as part of the employment contract, you are bound by it. There could be somethings related to commercial like sponsorship offers, sale and supplier agreements in Women's F1 academy, which are in conflict to F1 matters or still under consideration in a bidding process. Things like that.

Would the f1 acadamy managing director be responsible for such things? i dont think she would, isnt she responsible for trying to figure a path way out for the female drivers to get into all motorsport? " onto that next level " .

Surely sponsorships and so on would be the CFO's job?

[mendis]

I am not specualting on any thing, I am asking you, why a Womens f1 acadamy manager would in any way shape or form be handling confidential information regarding the F1 world championship?

As much as I know of the corporate World, there is always something that is regarded as Confidential and you can sometimes laugh at some matters, but there is always some logic. So once you sign confidentiality agreement as part of the employment contract, you are bound by it. There could be somethings related to commercial like sponsorship offers, sale and supplier agreements in Women's F1 academy, which are in conflict to F1 matters or still under consideration in a bidding process. Things like that.

Would the f1 acadamy managing director be responsible for such things? i dont think she would, isnt she responsible for trying to figure a path way out for the female drivers to get into all motorsport? " onto that next level " .

Surely sponsorships and so on would be the CFO's job?

I gave some examples that I could imagine. There could be 100 other things similar in nature where the F1 academy managing director would be exposed to.

[Hammerfist]

And what confidential information would an f1 acadamy manager have that would be of use to an f1 team? Are people worried she is going to tell Toto what women driver is the best......

You can speculate all that you want until cows come home. Assuming any position that can lead to Conflict of interest, is an invitation to disharmonious situation and they both knew it.

If FIA is serious about hunting down illegalities, they should get the narco analysis tests done on parties involved.

I am not specualting on any thing, I am asking you, why a Womens f1 acadamy manager would in any way shape or form be handling confidential information regarding the F1 world championship?

There is literally no connection. This whole story was bizarre and a lot of people expect Ben Sulyam to resign soon. Lets see what happens.

I first realized how unlikeable he was around the paddock when his son died earlier this year and that story was brushed aside like it didnt happen.