Lewis Hamilton has commended F1 Academy Managing Director Susie Wolff for formally lodging a legal complaint against the FIA for launching an investigation into her and her husband Toto Wolff over claims of a conflict of interest.
Last December, the FIA Compliance Department launched a short-lived investigation into a conflict of interest regarding an unnamed Formula 1 Team Principal and member of Formula One Management (FOM).
It transpired that the Mercedes Team Boss and F1 Academy Director were the pairing subject to the investigation and all parties, with the support of the entire complement of F1 teams, rejected the allegations and after 48 hours the FIA put a stopper on the investigative proceedings.
Hamilton was asked to give his take having touched down in Australia ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix, after Susie Wolff announced Wednesday that “I can confirm that I personally filed a criminal complaint in the French courts on the 4th of March in relation to the statements made about me by the FIA last December.”
“I’m incredibly proud of Susie,” Hamilton began.
“I think she’s so brave and she stands for such great values. She’s such a leader and in a world where often people are silent, for her to be standing up sends such a great message and I love that she’s taking it out of this world and finding it from the outside because there is a real lack of accountability here within the sport, within the FIA.”
Wolff’s legal case is just another chapter in the messy off-track saga that F1 has become embroiled in.
First, there was the investigation into claims made against Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner regarding conduct toward a female colleague that although dismissed by a King’s Counsel, has gone to appeal after the female complainant was suspended.
Then there were claims made against FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem regarding potentially tampering with race stewardship and circuit certification, but the Governing Body found its President clear of the allegations.
Hamilton indirectly referred to the mounting pile of socio-political issues plaguing the sport of late when commenting on Wolff.
“Things that are happening behind closed doors, there is no transparency, there is clearly no accountability and we need that,” he said.
“I think the fans need that. How can you trust the sport and what is happening here if you don’t have that?
“Hopefully this stand that she’s taken now will create change, will have a positive impact and especially for women, you know, it is still a male-dominated sport and we’re living in a time where the message is if you file a complaint, you’ll be fired and that is a terrible narrative to be projecting to the world so, especially when we’re talking about inclusivity here in the sport, we need to make sure that we’re staying to the core, true to the core values.”
Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell added that “you trust that the leaders in this sport have the best interest at their heart rather than their own interests.”
Russell, a figure of relative seniority amongst the F1 driving fraternity given his standing as a Director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, called for greater transparency to allow those within and outside the sport to judge these investigations with clarity.
“If things are transparent and we see the outcome of these cases, we all have a chance to judge for ourselves with all of the facts and figures in front of us,” he said.
“But when we don’t have the facts and figures and there is no transparency, you always think there’s something being hidden and that’s why I think it’s so important for the sport now, as Lewis said, to send the right message to everybody who’s supporting Formula One, watching Formula One, wants to be involved in Formula One, that things aren’t just swept under the carpet.”
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