Former Wolff advisor to the FIA: 'She is a guarantee for that'.
F1 News
- GPblog.com
According to Toto Wolff, there is no question of a double interest in the appointment of Shaila-Ann Rao. The former Mercedes advisor now takes a role at the FIA, but Wolff sees no problem with that.
Position at the FIA
Peter Bayer was until recently the Secretary General for Autosport within the FIA, but has relinquished this role to Rao. An important role within F1's governing body has thus been filled, but not all teams are equally happy about this. Mattia Binotto, for example, had reservations about Rao's previous employer.
Shaila-Ann worked as Wolff's personal advisor at Mercedes prior to this job. This means that there is now someone in a high-ranking position within the FIA who has just left Mercedes, and the other teams are not all that happy about that. Wolff, however, does not understand the criticism.
Link with Mercedes
''I think my opinion about Shaila-Ann in terms of integrity and transparency, she is a lawyer, this is what she stands for and I think it is important.We have had too many controversies in the past where things were not out in the open that should have been and she is a guarantee for that," Wolff said to Express.
In doing so, the Mercedes team boss seems to be hinting, not for the first time, at the mistakes he believes were made at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. That was when Lewis Hamilton lost the world title to Max Verstappen because Michael Masi had his own interpretation of the regulations. Wolff hopes this will not happen again with his former advisor.