F1 News: Toto Wolff Rejects Mercedes Cost Cap Worries - "Stayed Under The Line"

Mercedes have a lot of modifications in the pipeline for their W15 F1 car and yet, team boss Toto Wolff says that the cost cap won't be a hindrance to their progress

Mercedes is making big plans for their W15 Formula 1 car in 2024 and team boss Toto Wolff believes that the major modifications in the pipeline have no threat to face from the budget cap. 

The team has been zeroing in on W14's problems rather quickly and that is something that has helped them stay afloat. Formula 1 teams have to constantly play with different permutations and combinations to adjust development spending amidst budget caps. 

Mercedes is clear about the expenditure they'll be making in the wind tunnel so that they can overtake the competition next year.

Team boss Toto Wolff talks of a forensic analysis his finance team conducted of the cash flow. The results of the analysis aid in better financial management.

Eventually, better financial management would help the team meet their targets for the W15 F1 car without having to worry about exceeding the cost cap. He said, as quoted by Motorsport-total.com:

"We have set up a huge organization in our finance department with 46 employees that monitors the cost cap down to the last screw. She tracks the spending trend throughout the year, and we've basically allocated resources to different projects.

"We stayed under that line all year last year and we're under that line this year as well. Considering a normal development shift for next year, this is still pretty much on track.

"The good thing is that we're constantly learning what the car is doing. There's going to be some fundamental design changes for next year, but it's not about us building new stuff. It's more about what we're simulating - and that's not measured in money. It's in teraflops or wind tunnel hours."

Lewis Hamilton agrees that a lot of work needs to be done on the W14 car to give it more downforce. The current setup on the car is not majorly different from what they had last year. And it is definitely not in shape to beat the Red Bulls yet. He says: 

"Honestly, the car doesn't feel much different than it did at the start of the year. There are some elements of the car that feel different, but it is just a little bit more downforce on the car. But the characteristics of the car are very, very similar to what we had earlier in the year.

For next year's car, you have to take out and change a lot of these different things for sure. In terms of characteristics, it's definitely not the car that can beat the Red Bull yet. So that's something we have to work on."

With Mercedes being more hopeful about the next year, it would be interesting to see how the other teams save themselves from the cost cap woes.