In a bid to remain within the budget cap, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed that the Silver Arrows have a dedicated team “of 46 people” who track the team’s spending in accordance to the cap.
The last thing Mercedes want to do is breach the budget cap, something Red Bull famously did in 2021.
It was discovered towards the end of last season that the Austrians breached the 2021 cost cap by £1.8 million, something which saw them slapped with a $7 million fine and 10% reduction to their allotted wind tunnel time for 12 months.
The wind tunnel penalty started last October and is scheduled to conclude on October 26 later this year, a day before the Mexican Grand Prix.
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Given their dominance, it’s difficult to see where Red Bull have been impacted by the penalty; however, the true extent of the damage will likely be seen more clearly next season.
Red Bull had designed the bulk of the RB19 prior to their penalty being announced, hence why they’ve still been so quick this season.
It’s their 2024 car which is expected to be an issue, given that it’s having to be designed and developed whilst the team serve their penalty.
If Mercedes were to breach the cap, their hopes of catching Red Bull would be over; however, Wolff has revealed that the Germans have “stayed below” the cap in 2022 and so far in 2023.
“We have set up a huge organisation in our financial department of 46 people, that monitors the cost cap down to the last screw,” Wolff said, as reported by GPFans.com.
“It follows the trend of spending during all of the year and what we’ve done is basically allocated resource to various projects.
“We stayed below that line all year last year, and we’ve stayed below that line this year. Considering a normal development switch for next year, this is still pretty much on track.”
Wolff is determined for Mercedes to make “some fundamental design changes” to the car for 2024, something which, of course, costs a significant amount.
All of this has to be considered when the Silver Arrows plan out their spending for the season, something they will have had to have done ahead of designing their new concept.
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“The good thing is that we are constantly learning about what the car is doing,” Wolff said.
“There are going to be some fundamental design changes for next year, but it’s not that we’re building stuff.
“It’s more what are we simulating – and that is not measured in money. It’s teraflops or wind tunnel hours.”