Toto Wolff responds to Fred Vasseur after heated Ferrari upgrade row

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Wolff questioned Ferrari's ability to continue introducing major upgrades to its car, suggesting the Scuderia could soon begin running out of room under Formula 1's cost-cap regulations.

And Vasseur did not hold back when hearing Wolff's questioning of Ferrari's spending, noting how when every other team introduces upgrades, they are labelled as 'geniuses', but that the Maranello outfit is often viewed as being on the verge of cheating.

When questioned over Vasseur's remarks about his previous comments and asked what he thought of them, Wolff said that the Ferrari team boss can often be emotional, adding that it appears his words have since been misconstrued.

Wolff stressed that if Vasseur had read beyond the headlines and delved into his full remarks, he could have understood his standpoint properly. The Austrian circled back to the fact that Vasseur's words were largely bordering on emotion, which he believes is something largely shared among individuals in the Formula 1 paddock.

“Fred is very emotional. 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,” Wolff stated to Sky F1.

The Mercedes team principal was further pressed about whether his comments might have been taken out of context, which he affirmed was the case. Wolff also noted that he never meant to hint at Ferrari cheating or bring them into the spotlight for such suspicion.

While the latest row between Vasseur and Wolff has generated plenty of headlines off the track, the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari on it remains just as fierce. Ferrari has steadily closed the gap to the Brackley-based outfit in recent races, while at the British Grand Prix Sprint, Lewis Hamilton secured pole position before being overtaken by Kimi Antonelli, who went on to claim victory for Mercedes in the sprint race.