Wolff and Vasseur took part in the Vegas event’s team principals’ press conference just after FP1 had had to be cancelled, due to a water valve cover being worked loose by Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and struck by Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Ocon’s Alpine on subsequent laps.
This was due to the high underfloor forces the current ground-effect era of F1 cars assert on street tracks, with the concrete surround on the valve cover in question failing after the cars had been running over it at top speed.
Ocon’s car had to be rebuilt around a new chassis while urgent repairs were made to the valve cover and 30 others along the Strip. Sainz also needed a new chassis and engine to complete the Vegas weekend and was given a 10-place grid penalty for using an additional energy store outside of his allocation.
As this was going on, Wolff and Vasseur took part in an extraordinary press conference where a clearly irate Vasseur stated: “This [situation] will cost us a fortune – we fucked-up the session for Carlos”.
Wolff later said “you're speaking about a fucking drain cover that's been undone, that has happened before – that's nothing, it's FP1” as he sought to defend the Las Vegas event organisation from criticism over the track problems.
A week on at the Abu Dhabi GP, both team principals were summoned to explain their comments to the F1 stewards for the season finale, with the panel examining if they breached Article 12.2.1.f of the FIA’s International Sporting Code.
This states a rules breach is deemed to have occurred if there have been “any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motorsport and on the values defended by the FIA” by a competitor.
Wolff and Vasseur reported to the Abu Dhabi stewards for a joint hearing and both were hit with formal warnings.
The FIA reasoned: “Based on the submission from the FIA, the FIA regards language of this type to be unacceptable, moving forward, particularly when used by participants in the sport who have a high public profile and who are seen by many, especially younger, followers of the sport, as role models, and that in future the FIA will not tolerate the use of such language in FIA forums by any stakeholder.”
In the case of Wolff “the use of the language concerned was in this case unusual and was provoked by an abrupt interjection during the Press Conference and therefore cannot be regarded as typical from this Team Principal”.
As for Vasseur, the FIA noted: “[he] was extremely upset and frustrated by the incident that had occurred in FP1 and that language such as this, by him, was not usual.”
Wolff’s comments followed a highly charged moment of the press conference where his response to a question asking how the Vegas track issue could not be considered a "a black eye for Formula 1" was interrupted by another reporter.
Wolff had just said “they're going to seal the drain covers and nobody's going to talk about that tomorrow morning anymore…” when a shout of “they will!” from the Daily Mail’s F1 correspondent drew the following response.
“Did you ask the question? It's completely ridiculous, completely ridiculous!” Wolff replied. “FP1, how can you even dare trying to talk bad about an event that sets the new standards, new standards to everything.
“And then you're speaking about a fucking drain cover that's been undone, that has happened before – that's nothing, it's FP1.
“Give credit to the people that have set up this grand prix, that have made the sport much bigger than it ever was.
“Have you ever spoken good about someone and written a good word? You should about all these people that have been out here. Liberty has done an awesome job.
“And just because in FP1 a drain cover has become undone, we shouldn't be moaning.
“The car is broken, that's really a shame. For Carlos, it could have been dangerous, so between the FIA and the track and everybody needs to analyse how we can make sure that this is not happening again.
“But talking here about a black eye for the sport on a Thursday evening. Nobody watches that in European time anyway.”
Vasseur’s swearing – the language currently in question with the Abu Dhabi stewards – followed his refusal to engage with a question asked by FIA press conference host Tom Clarkson about Ferrari’s 2023 campaign after he had initially outlined the damage caused to Sainz’s car. Their exchange went as follows:
Vasseur: “…the situation is that we damaged completely the monocoque, the engine, the battery and I think it’s just unacceptable.”
Clarkson: “Well let’s look bigger picture…”
Vasseur: [Interrupts] “This one is a good one, I don’t need to have a bigger picture than this one.”
This development involving Wolff and Vasseur follows Haas team principal Guenther Steiner being reprimanded by the 2023 Spanish GP stewards for comments he made regarding the FIA's handling of events in Monaco that led to a decision impose a time penalty on Nico Hulkenberg for an opening-lap collision.
Steiner was summoned to explain alleged breach of Articles 12.2.1.c, 12.2.1.f and 12.2.1.k of the ISC in a Haas media briefing at the Barcelona round a week on from the Monaco event.
Part of Steiner’s defence was that “if he had meant to insult or offend anyone he would have used much different words”, per the FIA bulletin announcing the news of his reprimand.
