Fred Vasseur plans clear the air talks with Toto Wolff during F1 break

Ferrari F1 boss Fred Vasseur has admitted he plans to talk things through with Toto Wolff after comments made by the Mercedes team principal sparked confusion and disagreement between the pair.

After last weekend's British Grand Prix, Wolff's F1 outfit continue to lead both the constructors' championship and the drivers' standings thanks to Kimi Antonelli.

But Ferrari are making ground on the Silver Arrows thanks to a win for both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in recent weeks.

Both the seven-time champion and his Monegasque team-mate will be feeling relieved to have broken their grand prix win droughts in red this season, a feat they were able to pull off in part due to the Scuderia's aggressive approach to upgrades.

Vasseur's team have brought a number of significant improvements to their package across recent race weekends, something which caused Wolff to question their rate of development.

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What did Toto Wolff say about Ferrari's 2026 development?

Prior to the ninth round of the championship at Silverstone last time out, Wolff raised the idea that Ferrari may begin to struggle with the dreaded F1 cost cap budget if they continue bringing upgrades as the season progresses.

"Ferrari has piled on countless modifications," he explained to media.

"I suspect they’ll soon hit their budget limit, because we simply don’t have the financial flexibility to do everything they do. We’ll have to see where that takes them."

How did Fred Vasseur respond?

Vasseur took Wolff's comments to be an implication that the Scuderia were cheating, clapping back during an appearance in an FIA press conference at Silverstone.

When asked how hard it is to balance the introduction of upgrades with the budget cap, Vasseur responded: "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, Hamilton's F1 boss was then asked to clarify if he felt Wolff was accusing he and his team of cheating.

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

Where do the rival F1 bosses stand now?

Speaking to Sky Sports last weekend, Wolff made it clear that there was no hard feelings between the pair, noting instead that Vasseur had allowed emotions to get in the way of correctly understanding his comments.

"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," said the Austrian.

"But it’s just the emotionality that we all have and being passionate about team success, and I’m fine with that," he continued, later adding: "I know it was misunderstood."

When Vasseur spoke to the German arm of the F1 broadcaster, the Ferrari boss also clarified that he wasn't concerned the incident had done damage to their relationship.

Instead, he declared his attention to clear the air with Wolff during the upcoming summer break at the end of July, saying: "We will have time to speak during the break."

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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