An explosive conversation with Mercedes director and Williams co-owner Toto Wolff was "secretly recorded" by a former F1 team boss.

That is the claim of the German newspaper Bild.

Correspondent Nicola Pohl reports that the phone call was then transcribed and threatened to be used against the 41-year-old Austrian.

She said the story is the latest chapter in a 'war' that has broken out in the paddock, following Mercedes' ascendance to the very top of the F1 pecking order, and the 'test-gate' scandal.

In the taped conversation, Wolff is thought to have spoken negatively about not only his F1 boss, Ross Brawn, but also the Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche.

He also reportedly spoke about the details of his Williams shareholding and his clashing duties at Mercedes, and his 'complicated' cooperation with Niki Lauda.

(GMM)