For the third Formula One Grand Prix in a row, controversies off the track are threatening to overshadow the almost predictable action on it.

News this week ahead of the Australian GP that the FIA’s Ethics Committee had cleared its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, from “interference of any kind” at two F1 events last year was followed quickly by a social media post from Susie Wolff, director of the all-female series F1 Academy and who is married to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff, announcing that she had filed a criminal complaint in the French courts against the sport’s governing body for statements made about her in December.