F1 chief hits back at Mercedes boss Toto Wolff over Ferrari ‘whistleblower’ claims

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he was “disturbed” that two of his employees were reportedly cited by the FIA as triggering an investigation against Ferrari.

The Silver Arrows accused their rivals of breaking ERS rules after engine man Lorenzo Sass swapped the Prancing Horse for Mercedes.

James Allison brought the allegations to the powers that be but Wolff was raging when the report was supposedly leaked to the press.

However, Whiting has since come out to defend the FIA and he claims the media had already uncovered the names of his team members.

The fact that James... it was wrong to say that he was a whistleblower or something like that

"In fact when we had a little chat with the guys (journalists) yesterday, it was they who came up with the Ferrari man's name. I don't think it was any secret.

"The fact that James... it was wrong to say that he was a whistleblower or something like that.

“He just, as many engineers do, came up to us and said 'this guy started working for us and he says this team might be doing that', and we go and check, and it's not the case.”

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"It was just one of those normal conversations that you have with somebody: 'We think Ferrari may be doing this, this and this because of that', and we went and checked, and we thought

'actually they could be doing that, so let's have a check and make sure'.

"It's taken us a little while to get to that, but as I say, it's a pretty routine kind of thing for us, for people to come to us, especially when they've had staff members come from another

team.”

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