22/01/2025
NEWS STORY
Toto Wolff admits that his team's efforts were compromised by the budget cap last season, revealing that Mercedes came close to breaching the limit.
Limited to $135m, George Russell's crashes at COTA and a week later in Mexico hit the team hard, as did Kimi Antonelli's shunt at Monza.
Fearing a breach of the budget cap, which would result - somewhat ironically - in a fine, but, more importantly, restrictions on development time, and even the loss of points, the German team opted to ease back on its upgrade programme.
"Very close," he told Auto Motor und Sport, when asked how close Mercedes came to breaching the cap. "You can't build up a big nest egg," he added. "It's more the case that you overshoot at the beginning of the year and then start to save.
"At the end of the year, we had to do without some upgrades in aerodynamics and mechanics," he admitted, "because there was simply no money left to produce the corresponding parts.
"The accidents at the end of the season really get you into trouble, Kimi in Monza, George in Austin and Mexico. At one point, we only had one set of a certain type of wing. There was no money left within the cost limit for new ones.
Nonetheless, the Austrian remains a fan of the cap.
Asked if he is still in favour, he replied: "Definitely. Because it has made the teams profitable and therefore the sport sustainable."