Wolff cries poverty, Stella does not believe him
“We are up against the wall with the budget cap, we cannot bring updates at the same pace as our rivals do“. At the end of the Dutch GP Toto Wolff explained that Mercedes is running out of budget cap and for this reason no updates will arrive until the Malaysian GP, when Mercedes will introduce the package with which it hopes to ‘bring home’ both world titles by fending off the chase from Ferrari and McLaren.
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According to Andrea Stella, however, Toto Wolff is ‘bluffing’ when he talks about being ‘up against the wall’ regarding the budget cap, because in light of some news for 2027 there is a 3 million bonus that can be brought forward to 2026. The 2027 regulations introduce substantial changes to the power units and some aspects of chassis design and for this reason teams have been granted an extra 3 million to prepare for the transition.
“All teams will have a quota available in the reporting related to the budget cap – the words of Andrea Stella – and, if I’m not mistaken, it is about three million that can be used in the 2026 reporting for calculations related to the budget cap. And I am sure that Mercedes, having noticed that their rivals are somehow raising the bar, will now benefit from the development that is surely happening in their own factories.”
“I am sure that the car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the one they have on track and that now they will want to convert part of this potential into updates to apply to the real car – added Stella – so, I am practically sure they will present updates. Obviously, it would be better if it were not so, but I don’t even want to think about it.”
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