Fred Vasseur makes 'cheating' claim after Toto Wolff comment about Ferrari

Fred Vasseur believes Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff insinuated Ferrari could be "cheating"  with its continuous stream of F1 upgrades.

The Scuderia delivered its first big package of the campaign at the Miami Grand Prix, followed by another in Barcelona, with 32 different upgrades declared in the official submissions so far this season.

This is in contrast to just 17 for Mercedes, whose own big upgrade was delivered in Canada, with another not expected before the summer break. 

F1 teams are limited in what they can spend by the cost cap, with only Red Bull overspending during the 2021 season, which was not declared until 2022 after each team's accounts had been analysed.

For this, Red Bull received a fine and was docked wind-tunnel and CFD development time. 

"We're a little bit surprised that Ferrari can throw these huge updates at the car in the way they do," Wolff had said. 

"In my opinion, they need to be running out of money soon, cost cap money, because we can't do that.

"We're simply lacking the buffer and the cost cap to be able to bring so many parts in the way they do. So hopefully that's going to change towards the end of the season when they won't be able to bring any parts anymore. At least, let's say, the logic would say that, and we're going to come up with more.

"The only ones who are not slowing down are Ferrari. For ourselves, you can see we had one big one that we introduced in Montreal. We have small parts that come in between. I think the same for Red Bull and McLaren. It's just Ferrari, who seems to be limitless in that way."

In response, Vasseur felt Wolff had gone as far as accusing Ferrari of "cheating."

"You are referring to the comments of Toto, I found it quite ironic coming from Toto and Mercedes," Vasseur began to tell media, including RacingNews365, when asked about what Wolff had said.

"When Red Bull is developing or Mercedes is developing, they are geniuses, but when we are developing, we are cheating.

"You have to calm down, we did not bring more parts than Red Bull or another team, and I don't know if it was a joke."

When then directly asked if he felt Wolff was accusing Ferrari of "cheating", Vasseur replied: "if you think we overshoot the cost cap, for me, it is going in this direction."

2026 regulations and upgrades

Given that the 2026 regulations are immature, there is a greater scope for larger upgrades to be delivered and to have a large impact on car performance. 

These are detailed every Friday morning in the official FIA upgrades document submission, with Vasseur explaining that some of Ferrari's 'upgrades' were actually just modifications to existing parts.

"If you have something to ask Toto, go to Toto, ask him why he spoke about me, don't ask me the question, but honestly, I have no clue," he said.

"I found it a bit weird because I think that the more performance you can being at the beginning, and we are all in the same boat, it is better to have a couple of tenths for five races, then just a couple of tenths for the last two. 

"Sometimes it is difficult to find performance, sometimes a bit less, sometimes you can have the feeling that we are bringing a big upgrade, but it is just the modification of some parts.

"The FIA is asking us to declare what we are changing on parts, but not the details, and we are doing it for you to have something to write, and if you don't want to get it, that's another story, and we can stop. 

"But honestly, it's sometimes starting to be taken out of proportion."