Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff is puzzled by Ferrari’s flood of updates following the Austrian Grand Prix—the Austrian suspects budget cap problems are on the horizon
After a weekend in which Ferrari unveiled a new engine spec, Toto Wolff openly wonders how the Scuderia can spend so much money and still stay within the Formula 1 budget cap.
Since the forced Formula 1 hiatus in April—caused by the cancellations of the Grands Prix in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia—it feels like hardly a race weekend goes by without Ferrari fitting new parts to the SF-26.
Since Formula 1 operates under a strict budget cap, development is subject to extremely tight controls. The days when top teams ran at least two wind tunnels around the clock and had their own test teams log unlimited laps on private tracks are long gone.
Wolff “surprised”
So it’s only natural that the competition reacts sensitively when a team seems to be rolling out one upgrade after another.
“We’re a bit surprised that Ferrari can shower the car with these massive updates in this way,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff remarked after the Austrian Grand Prix. Ferrari brought a new engine specification to Spielberg, along with revised front wing elements and some test parts.
“In my opinion, they should run out of money soon—the budget cap money—because we couldn’t do that. We simply don’t have the leeway under the cost cap to bring as many parts as they do.”
Fewer upgrades as the season progresses?
“Hopefully that will change toward the end of the season when they can no longer bring new parts. At least that’s what logic would dictate—and then we’ll step it up with more.”
While Red Bull has also made significant changes to the RB21, the Ferrari SF-26 has been completely redesigned over the course of the season. In addition to the major aerodynamic packages in Miami and Barcelona, there have been countless smaller detail improvements, such as to the wing end plates or the underbody edges.
In addition, the Scuderia introduced the innovative “Macarena wing,” in which the upper element of the rear wing rotates 180 degrees as soon as “Straight Line Mode” is activated.
Engine upgrades were ready
Even the less visible areas are under scrutiny. After Monaco, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) completed its first evaluation of the so-called ADUO upgrades (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities).
Manufacturers whose internal combustion engines lag behind the benchmark in terms of performance are thus granted financial relief, more test bench time, and permission to modify certain parts that would otherwise be “frozen” until 2027.
But instead of waiting until these funds and approvals were officially released, Audi and Ferrari had their engine updates ready virtually immediately.
No updates at Mercedes
Wolff emphasizes that Mercedes currently has no engine upgrades in the pipeline. In Austria, the team introduced only a reliability improvement for the battery pack, which does not fall under the ADUO regulation. On the chassis side, Mercedes held back on new components until a major update package arrived in Montreal.
Other teams are also taking a low-key approach. Williams has already made it clear that the budget cap is forcing the team to run certain components until the end of their planned service life before replacing them with further developments—rather than bringing new ideas to the track immediately. A major update isn’t planned here until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Aston Martin hasn’t touched the car’s visible bodywork at all so far and is instead aiming for a single, massive upgrade around the summer break. McLaren, on the other hand, is rolling out smaller updates as soon as they’re ready, but in recent races has primarily struggled with fine-tuning a new front wing and is on the verge of introducing its own version of the “Macarena wing.”
Ferrari Sets the Pace for Upgrades
“The only ones who aren’t slowing down are Ferrari,” Wolff concludes. “As for us, you saw that we brought a major package to Montreal. In between, there are smaller updates.”
“I think it’s similar with Red Bull and McLaren. Only Ferrari seems to have no limits in this regard—and on top of that, they’ve been speculating on an ADUO and are coming out with a new engine. So they must have started development six months ago.”
