Toto Wolff declares 'there's a porn movie with my face in it'

Toto Wolff made some eyebrow-raising comments while discussing the use of modern technology ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix. The long-serving Mercedes team principal will be hoping for a productive weekend with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli hunting podium finishes. It will be the first race after the summer break, which was dominated by a range of interesting stories.

There was a great deal of speculation about whether Max Verstappen would be moving to the Silver Arrows. He was pictured chatting to Wolff on a lavish superyacht owned by the Mercedes supremo. Before that, a series of doctored images which appeared to show the pair boarding a private jet went viral.

Wolff was quizzed on the fake pictures ahead of this weekend's race, with the 53-year-old saying he was amused by the lengths some people have gone to.

"My target group is not the social media user," he said. "It's more grown-ups, but from time to time I get to see what's up there and what things are being made up there, to a degree that even artificial intelligence is faking up some photos. I look at it with a certain amusement."

Asked if doctored images and AI-generated photos were becoming dangerous, he replied: "You can with the deep fakes. I think there's some porn movies with me, with my head! As long as there's a good body and I'm performing well in the scenes."

Opening up on the alleged videos, Wolff joked: "Niki Lauda always watched the whole video because he was interested in the story. That was really unfair from that guy. That he didn't meet the girl afterwards."

Wolff gave a more serious reply when it was put to him that some people are genuinely misled by images and stories which can be deduced as elaborate fakes.

"What I've learned is not to spend too much time in trying to, how can I say, take it too personal," he said.

"Bradley [Lord], who runs our comms, the only thing I ask him is always to say, the weekend or every day, at the end of the day: 'Show me the worst things and if you want to flatter me, show me the best ones'.

"But it's good for Formula One. I think it's a testament of how strong the sport is and how, which categories have been created, how the social media buzz has really taken Formula One by a storm.

"Our audiences become younger and more female. We're in a great space. I'd rather have it this way and cope with some deepfake porn than nobody being interested, because I remember, these times we had them too."

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.