Wolff reveals 'entertaining' chat with Ben Sulayem

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he enjoyed an "entertaining" discussion with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem on Saturday at Silverstone.

The two men were pictured in close conversation on the top floor of the FIA hospitality unit just before qualifying.

Wolff stopped short of revealing the details of the informal meeting, but given that they had not seen each other for some time it was an opportunity to catch up on a series of topics.

"It was entertaining," Wolff told the media. "The discussion was normal but it’s always good.

"There’s a few things that can be discussed. We discussed the overall situation in Formula 1, Concorde and these things.

"But it is more, we haven’t seen each other for a while and there was an exchange on a few topics."

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Earlier this year, ahead of the start of the 2023 season, Ben Sulayem opted to step back from his daily involvement with F1.

The decision followed a period of growing tensions between the governing body and F1, fueled by Ben Sulayem's reaction to rumors that F1 had received a massive $20 billion buy-out offer from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

The FIA president called the valuation an "inflated price tag" which triggered an angry reaction from Formula 1 whose legal department fired off a letter in which it accused the governing body's top official of meddling in the sport's commercial affairs.

However, F1 later denied that Saudi Arabia had tabled an offer to acquire the sport.

But the FIA president was back in the news this week, having thrown his support behind Andretti-Cadillac's candidacy to join the grid.

Wolff, along with several of his F1 colleagues, has been vocal in opposing new teams joining the fray, not only for financial reasons, as this would dilute the teams' current prize fund, but also for safety reasons, arguing that adding an eleventh team on the grid would create more congestion out on track and in the pit lane at certain circuits.

"When you look at qualifying sessions, I mean already now we’re looking like on a go-kart track — we’re tripping over each other," Wolff said at Silverstone.

"There is a safety concern: we haven’t got the logistics, where to put an 11th team. Here in Silverstone, we can accommodate the Hollywood people [a reference to the presence of a fictional team in the pitlane] but on other circuits, we can’t."

Wolff hinted that the above concern as well as F1's current $200 million anti-dilution fee inscribed in the sport's Concorde Agreement had also been discussed with Ben Sulayem.

"What’s being said in public has created a perception that is diverging," Wolff said. "But it’s actually not because the FIA and Formula 1 wrote Concorde as well as the teams.

"I think there’s probably a little bit of a negotiation position in there but the sense that I get is that everybody’s pushing in the same direction."

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