Wolff on Horner case: 'Don't reduce it to a battle between teams'

Toto Wolff, together with Zak Brown, wanted to find out more about the investigation into Christian Horner earlier this week. The Austrian thought it was all "too superficial". Following these statements, the leaked images of - possibly -  Horner, which can not be confirmed to be real, came to light. What did the team principal think of this?

Wolff is clear about the situation: "In my opinion, it's very difficult from where we sit to say more than I said before. This is a decision with Red Bull, for the governing body, and I don't think for another team. If you ask my personal measures, obviously, but we should talk about the racing today." Asked what he thought of the pictures, he says to GPBlog and others: "I have not seen them, unfortunately."

F1 has prided itself on inclusivity and all of that movement over the past few years, We Race As One and everything like that. Given where we're at at the moment, you mentioned F1 living in a bubble sometimes in the press conference. How important is that? How big a moment do you feel this is for the sport? And why are you issuing them beyond just one team internally?

Wolff: "I think the handling of the situation is very critical for F1. It's not in the hands of competitors to take any action, and we should look at ourselves in terms of what is it we can do to optimise on all of these topics. Equality and diversity, and that's what we are doing. I'm very proud that we are at the forefront of that. To judge another person, another team is the governing body that needs to do it. They have it in their hand. And this is probably where we need to look at."

You said inclusivity and transparency, which you've been asked about. You said that's not in the competitor's hands. But do you have any means to exert your influence as a group of teams? Could you not make a presentation to the authorities? Have you done that? Or is all you can do just answer comments in the media and put your views out there that way?

Wolff: "You know, as a team, if we go beyond what we've said, it looks like it is a battle between competitors in Formula One, and I don't want to reduce that topic to this level. It is a much wider issue that deserves more space, and I don't want to harm the topic by making it an intra-team battle because it is not. It's the FIA or the legal teams that have to look at what is outside of the team's control."

How damaging has this week been, Toto, do you think, for the sport, just in your personal opinion? And obviously, you've spoken about it. Zak's spoken about it. Lewis has spoken about it. There's been nothing from Formula One or the FIA. How does that make you feel?

Wolff: "As I said before, I think the moment I start to and continue to question how this has been handled, I'm not doing any good to the whole issue. Because then it could be seen as a power fight within F1. That's why I think, like I said, it's not in the team's hands. It's a so much bigger topic. I don't want to diminish the whole situation by making it seem like the Mercedes or the McLaren guy talks about the Red Bull guys. I think let's see where it goes in the next few days. And I would very much hope that the governing body, the sanctioning body, the commercial guys, all those, have the confidence right."