Mercedes boss Toto Wolff on Thursday vigorously defended accusations of irregularities regarding the engine and fuel of his cars for the 2026 Formula One season, going so far as to joke sarcastically about being involved in the Epstein affair.
For some weeks, Mercedes has been suspected by some of its rivals of having found a loophole in the new engine regulations concerning the measurement of the compression ratio and therefore the car’s power.
The Mercedes-AMG power unit, which like the others this season is 50 percent internal combustion and 50 percent electric, also powers the McLaren, Alpine and Williams cars.
It was announced on Wednesday a vote will take place over whether a regulation change should be implemented from August onwards over the legality of Mercedes’ engine.
“We were told that the (engine’s) compression ratio was something illegal, which is total bullshit, utter bullshit,” thundered Wolff during a press conference on the sidelines of F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The Austrian also fired a broadside against reports that fuel supplied to Mercedes by Petronas has allegedly not yet been approved ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season on March 8 in Melbourne.
“Then they come up with a story claiming our fuel is illegal,” he continued.
“I don’t know where that comes from and it starts spinning again.
“Maybe tomorrow we’re inventing something else? I don’t know, I’ve been on the Epstein files, God knows what.”
Moments later Wolff appeared to backtrack on his reference to the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“You’re not happy with me saying that, no?,” he appeared to ask his media representative.
“I was too young. What? Oh, yeah, I must not say that.”
The US Justice Department last month released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files — more than three million documents, photos and videos related to its investigation into sex criminal Epstein, who died from what was determined to be suicide while in custody in 2019.
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