The ‘advantage’ Wolff thinks Mercedes could have over Red Bull

Toto Wolff believes Red Bull’s F1 cost cap penalty could prove to be an “advantage” for Mercedes in the “long-term”.

18 Feb 2023

Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W13 lead

Red Bull were hit with a $7m fine and a 10 percent reduction on aerodynamic development time for a 12-month period, taking their permitted allocation down from 70 percent to 63 percent for the 2023 F1 season.

The impact of the punishment has been the subject of intense debate, with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Max Verstappen even appearing to be on different pages.

“I think they [Red Bull] have done a very good job last year in having a car out there that was half a second or more quicker than anyone else,” Wolff told media, including Crash.net, at the launch of Mercedes W14 challenger.

“The lack of wind tunnel time is certainly not great for them, [and it could be] an advantage for us this season.”

However, Wolff stressed that an efficient organisation like Red Bull should be able to limit the damage of such a penalty.

“But if you have an efficient machine, you can certainly compensate for that, or large parts of it,” he explained.

“So, long-term, [it’s] good for us, but we’ve been in that situation - obviously without a penalty - so we won and had less wind tunnel time for everyone else for the last two seasons.

“It’s going to certainly bite them a bit, but if they are efficient as an organisation – which they’ve demonstrated – it’s not going to be big.”

Toto Wolff (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director in the FIA Press Conference. Formula 1 World — Toto Wolff (GER) Mercedes AMG F1 Shareholder and Executive Director in the…

Mercedes are hoping their brand-new W14 car will propel them back into title contention this season after slipping behind Red Bull and Ferrari in F1’s pecking order during a challenging 2022.

At the launch of RB19 earlier this month, Verstappen named Mercedes as the biggest threat to Red Bull in 2023.

Asked about the prospect of another title battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Wolff said: “We saw very positive comments from the other teams that we are going to be right there.

“But we need to prove that ourselves that we are taking the right decisions and I would like to have a fight in the front there, not only the top thee teams but maybe one of the others can join us there.

“It would be good for Formula 1 and that’s what makes it so enjoyable.”