Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his team were left with a bitter-sweet feeling after paying $4.8 Million as entry fee for the 2016 championship.
As Mercedes set itself to dominate the world of F1 with its unmatching performance, it had to pay a big fee of about $4.8 Million to enter the 2016 season. Team principal Toto Wolff described the fees as a bitter-sweet feeling.
The huge amount was due to a slight increase in the fees but that was not the only reason. The Brackley-based team had scored 703 points in the 2015 season and it cost them $6,194 per point scored.
The base entry fee was $516,128. Coming together, this summed up to a total of $4,870,510 which the German car manufacturers were required to pay to enter the 2016 season.
At the time, Wolff admitted that this was painful to pay. “Expensive,” Wolff told Motorsport.com. “It is always sad signing it off. It was a system being set up a couple of years ago now.
“This leads to a situation where if you score a lot of points the entry fee for next year is huge. Nevertheless, we are here for sporting success and scoring that many points mean we had a really good season. Therefore maybe there is a bitter-sweet feeling in signing it off.”
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Toto Wolff is not interested in records
In 2015, Mercedes took its second constructors’ title and managed to score more points than in the 2014 season despite the 2015 Abu Dhabi finale not having a double points system.
However, Wolff said that he is not too interested in records as long as the team keeps winning titles. He said, “There are many metrics that we monitor, and which are important to us.”
“The maximum number of points is not the most obvious one. It is winning the championship and winning many races and being on pole.
“There is sporting reliability, mechanical reliability, and overall continuing to develop your team. For me personally the number of points, the highest ever points scoring, is just a figure in a book. It is of no great interest.”
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