Wolff believes ‘picture still very unclear’ on VW entry

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said the “picture is still very unclear” with regards to Volkswagen’s potential entry into Formula 1.

The rumours around Porsche and Audi, both prestigious names within the VW umbrella, joining Formula 1 will not die down with Red Bull reportedly looking to partner with Porsche and Audi potentially joining forces with McLaren in 2026.

While those two respective rumours are being widely reported across the Formula 1 network, Wolff currently thinks that plan is far from clear-cut and there is still some way to go indetermining what VW’s entry could potentially look like.

“It’s great if the Volkswagen Group joins F1,” Wolff said, asquoted by Motorsport.com.

“Fantastic brand, it increases the credibility of what we do. And they are racers. But as far as I understand, there is no firm commitment yet.

“They’ve been sitting on the table for the regulations, but [while] that commitment isn’t actually confirmed, we can’t really know what the plans are.

“I think that it’s not clear yet who actually enters as a power unit supplier.

“And who declares themselves as newcomers. It could well be that there are three companies from the same group that are entering as newcomers. How can I say? The picture is still very unclear.”

Like Wolff, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto would also welcome VW’s arrival in Formula 1, but did state that there are some very important questions to be asked and answered in the coming months relating to their potential entry.

“There are open points which are on financial regulations, because they need to be finalised and formalised,” Binotto said.

“What is a newcomer, and how do we define newcomer? What are the benefits of a newcomer? All that needs to be somehow clarified and defined. On top of that is all the IP transfer, because IP transfer should not be possible.

“That was agreed. On how do we translate that into a wording, difficult to know.

“There are points on the technical side that are still open discussions. So there are many things that need to be moved forward and finalised, and from now to June time is certainly very short, which means that we need to work on it as a high priority.”