Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has angrily hit back at suggestions his team risks running its engines with non-homologated fuel at the start of the season.
As Mercedes' fuel supplier Petronas continues its process of getting official sign off of its 2026 products from the FIA, rumours surfaced of it not getting approval in time and being forced to run something different from the Australian Grand Prix.
But Wolff has rubbished such talk, as he expressed annoyance at the latest speculation surrounding his team so soon after the controversy surrounding compression ratios.
"We were told compression ratio is something where we were illegal, which is total bullshit, utter bullshit," said Wolff, when asked by The Race about the situation surrounding fuel.
"Now the next story comes up that our fuel is illegal. I don't know where that comes from, and it starts spinning again.
"Maybe tomorrow, we're inventing something else that I don't know - I've been on the Epstein files. God knows what?
"So another nonsense. You know, this is a complicated topic with the process and all of this, but I can't even comment."
The Race understands that Mercedes' fuel is on course to be approved – with the certification procedure set to be signed off soon.
The products that Mercedes and its customers have used in testing so far are believed to be identical in terms of their chemical composition to its planned race fuel.
However, they are permitted for testing to contain components that are not sourced from the supply chain being certified that must be used for racing.
Compression ratio 'fair game'
Mercedes has been under the spotlight of its rivals all winter after it emerged it had found a way to exploit F1's compression ratio rules.
But the ongoing controversy on that topic seems to be nearing a conclusion, with an e-vote due to take place next week regarding an additional way of testing for compliance.
While Mercedes has long maintained that what it is doing with its engine is fully legal, and has had approval from the FIA, Wolff has said it will not challenge new procedures if they are agreed.
"We said it all along that this looks like a storm in a teacup, the whole thing, and the numbers that were coming up, if these numbers would have been true I absolutely understand why somebody would fight it," he said.
"But eventually it's not worth the fight. It doesn't change anything for us, whether we stay like this or whether we change the new regulations."
Wolff suggested last week that any gain from its compression ratio trick is only worth a few horsepower.
And while Mercedes' rivals pushed for new testing procedures, Wolff believes that the move to have both a hot and a cold test is something that may not actually hurt his team.
"I think the way it's been done now, that it needs to be compliant to the regulations when it's cold and when it's hot, doesn't give anybody an advantage," he said.
"I think the attempt was from the other guys to have it only measured hot so they could actually have it cold outside of the regulation. So now it's a fair game for everyone."
