Vasseur hits back at Wolff over Ferrari upgrades: 'I found it quite ironic from Toto'

At the Red Bull Ring a week ago, the Austrian had questioned Ferrari's ability to keep bringing major updates to the car, suggesting that the team should soon start running out of room under the cost cap. He also pointed to Ferrari's expected new engine, arguing that its development must have begun months earlier.

"We're a little bit surprised that Ferrari can throw these huge updates at the car in the way they do. In my opinion, they need to be running out of Cost Cap money soon, because we can't do that," he said back then. "We're simply lacking the buffer in the Cost Cap to be able to bring so many parts in the way they do. Ferrari seems to be limitless in that way. And then on top, they were expecting a new engine already. So they must have started developing that six months ago."

Responding to his rival's comments during the press conference, Vasseur said he found them ironic, arguing that when Red Bull or Mercedes introduce developments they are praised, whereas Ferrari's upgrades immediately raise suspicion. He also stressed that Ferrari had not brought more new parts than its rivals and questioned whether the remarks had been meant as a joke.

When asked whether he believed Wolff was implying that Ferrari had been cheating, Vasseur suggested that if the accusation was that the team had exceeded the cost cap, then that was how he interpreted the comments: "If you think that we overshoot the cost cap, for me it's going into this direction."

He finally added, after being reminded of his friendship with the Mercedes team principal, that it would have been better not to comment on the matter: "I think it was better to avoid to speak."