Ferrari F1 chief Fred Vasseur hits back over ‘cheating’ claims after British Grand Prix victory

An edited image of Toto Wolff grinning and Fred Vasseur looking suspicious on the backdrop of a Mercedes car — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ferrari chief Fred Vasseur hits back over ‘cheating’ claims after British GP victory

Fireworks between Lewis Hamilton's former and current F1 boss

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 7 July 2026 16:40 Updated: 17:49

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Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has clapped back over comments made by Toto Wolff that he felt suggested the Scuderia were 'cheating' when it comes to F1 upgrades.

At last weekend's British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc finally claimed another victory in red as Lewis Hamilton joined his team-mate on the podium in front of a home crowd.

After the ninth round of the championship at Silverstone, the Scuderia have made up ground to the Silver Arrows in the championship standings, with 78 points now separating Ferrari from leaders Mercedes.

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The Maranello-based squad have been the most consistent of Mercedes' rivals in 2026, with Hamilton's Barcelona GP victory and Leclerc's Silverstone win the only times this season where a non-Mercedes driver has won the race.

Though Ferrari have failed to match the straight line speed of the Mercedes, their improved form has been helped by multiple major upgrades early on in the season.

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Vasseur calls out Mercedes double standards with F1 upgrades

Prior to Hamilton's first grand prix win in red back in June, his team brought significant upgrades to the circuit. As both Hamilton and Ferrari then worked on closing the gap to the leaders in both championship standings, Mercedes boss Wolff then suggested the Scuderia would eventually run out of upgrade opportunities due to the confines of the dreaded F1 cost cap.

Each F1 team is limited to spending a finite amount of cash on improving their cars each season to hit the overall cap figure (which was £170.09million when 2026 began).

As Ferrari have already brought multiple upgrades to their 2026 challenger, this led Wolff to suggest they would struggle to continue at the same development rate across the season without breaching the cost cap, something Vasseur did not take well to.

"Ferrari have been throwing things at their car massively, I guess they will be running out of cost cap soon, because we couldn’t do it, because we simply haven’t got the margin financially. Let’s see where that leads them," said Hamilton's former boss at the start of the British GP race week.

Naturally, when Vasseur made an appearance on the FIA press conference sofa in Silverstone following Wolff's comments, he was asked how hard it is to balance the introduction of upgrades with F1's budget cap.

Vasseur then shared his disdain at the Mercedes boss' statement, responding with: "You are referring to the comments of Toto? I found it quite ironic from Toto, coming from Toto and Mercedes.

"When Red Bull is developing or when Mercedes is developing, they are genius. When we are developing, we are cheating. I think you have to calm down with this. We didn’t bring more parts than Red Bull or another one. I don’t know if it was a joke, but…"

After trailing off, the Ferrari team principal was then asked to clarify if he felt Wolff was accusing he and his team of cheating ahead of the British GP.

"If you think that we overshoot the cost cap, for me it’s… going into this direction," Vasseur confirmed.

F1 Ferrari Mercedes Toto Wolff Silverstone British Grand Prix