Mercedes are slowly and steadily moving forward, trying to bridge the huge gap created by Red Bull this early in the 2023 F1 season. A series of major upgrades allowed the Silver Arrows to make huge strides forward. After being questioned about the finances of these upgrades by Red Bull, Toto Wolff replied that Mercedes has done its accounts properly.
Mercedes made the biggest upgrade to their car during the Monaco GP, and the W14 has been performing much better since then. The Brackley outfit managed to claim back-to-back podiums, in Spain and in Canada.
P3 for Lewis in the Canadian GP. Back to back podiums for LH 💪 pic.twitter.com/22P9Hns60s
— Mercedes-AMG F1 News ✇ (@MercedesNewsUK) June 18, 2023
Amidst all of this, Red Bull has claimed that Mercedes must have exhausted all of their finances because of these upgrades, so much so that their 2024 project might be in danger. Red Bull boss, Christian Horner said, “I am surprised at what Mercedes was able to do with its car, they had to invest a lot of money in these developments. To the point of compromising the rest perhaps.” However, Toto Wolff made sure to explain that it was definitely not the case.
Toto Wolff answers back
Wolff commented on the issue and made it extremely clear that they have not jeopardized any future projects. He claimed that their finance department has absolutely made sure to dissect the cost cap down to the last screw, to make sure that Mercedes spends their allocation wisely.
According to Nextgen-Auto, Wolff said, “We stayed below the red line all last year, and we stayed below that line this year. on the right track.” He further explained that their finance department has tracked their spending throughout the year and has allocated their resources properly to the various projects.
Toto Wolff has confirmed that there will be two more upgrades for the W14 before summer break, including a “big one in Silverstone.”
The Silverstone upgrade package *could* be even bigger than the Monaco package 👀
[#AMuS] pic.twitter.com/YufE0TSxDA
— Mercedes-AMG F1 News ✇ (@MercedesNewsUK) June 19, 2023
The Silver Arrows team principal also explained that they are constantly monitoring the behavior of the car. Next year, there will be some fundamental design changes in the car, however, Mercedes won’t have to build new things for that.
Mercedes’ plan for upcoming races
Toto Wolff has revealed that Mercedes is planning for two more upgrades to come before the summer break. The bigger one amongst them would be arriving at Silverstone, and the minor upgrade is for after that.
The Mercedes engineers have already made it clear that they believe they would need just one major upgrade before they can catch up with Red Bull. According to their calculations, they are just three-tenths off from Red Bull and one-tenth off from Aston Martin.
#F1: According to Mercedes’ engineers, three tenths are still missing on Red Bull and one tenth on Aston Martin. Ferrari is a tenth behind.
An engineer dares to say: “We are only an upgrade away from a victory,” with two upgrades already planned before the summer break.
— deni (@fiagirly) June 22, 2023
If Mercedes really are able to bring in the upgrades that they have promised, it would mean that Red Bull would also need to upgrade their car to maintain their supremacy at the front of the grid.
