Is Mercedes at risk in F1's development war?

And we've also had this wider battleground because the development war is being talked about perhaps more than ever before in Formula 1 this year.

The cost cap is the reason for that.

Toto Wolff recently said after Zandvoort that Mercedes doesn't have the money for upgrades.

The cost cap is shaping that battle at the front.

But looking at it, From what you've seen from the progress of McLaren and Ferrari in terms of the in-season progress they've made, do you think there's a risk that Mercedes has in some way got it wrong?

Well, it's not a case of getting it wrong.

It's a case of total welcome to reality.

The reality of Formula One is that cost cap does control the spend.

And the problem is you've got to manage it from day one.

So I think, you know, we see teams that have developed and brought new parts to the car or updated parts to the car.

And that's the loose word, I think.

You know, to get a slightly better, let's say the rear corner of the floor in front of the rear tire, to change that profile of that area, you don't need a whole new floor.

You can do it, you know, with sub molds and different parts, bits and pieces.

And that's what we used to have to do all the time.

I've seen us having a rear half of a floor and a front half of a floor and joining them together.

Yes, you might pay a few grams of a weight disadvantage doing it, but you have to outweigh that against the aerodynamic advantage.

So I think where Mercedes have got it wrong is they haven't adapted to that situation.

Through the ground effect era, they brought lots of stuff to the cars.

They didn't go over the budget cap.

But they never really were as competitive as they potentially should have been or we thought they would be during that Grand Effect era.

So now they're at a position where they started the season very strongly and quite a few other teams, and I'm using McLaren here as an example, you know, they fought hard for the championship right to the last race of 2025.

So they brought a car that was a baseline car that they could get up and running with these new regulations, get to work, get to know how to use the power unit and the harvesting and the deployment, etc, etc.

Knowing that they were going to develop the car.

as time went by.

So they knew they were going to dig into their cost cap quite well in the first half of the season at least.

And we've also had this wider battleground because the development war is being talked about perhaps more than ever before in Formula 1 this year.

The cost cap is the reason for that.

Toto Wolff recently said after Zandvoort that Mercedes doesn't have the money for upgrades.

The cost cap is shaping that battle at the front.

But looking at it, From what you've seen from the progress of McLaren and Ferrari in terms of the in-season progress they've made, do you think there's a risk that Mercedes has in some way got it wrong?

Well, it's not a case of getting it wrong.

It's a case of total welcome to reality.

The reality of Formula One is that cost cap does control the spend.

And the problem is you've got to manage it from day one.

So I think, you know, we see teams that have developed and brought new parts to the car or updated parts to the car.

And that's the loose word, I think.

You know, to get a slightly better, let's say the rear corner of the floor in front of the rear tire, to change that profile of that area, you don't need a whole new floor.

You can do it, you know, with sub molds and different parts, bits and pieces.

And that's what we used to have to do all the time.

I've seen us having a rear half of a floor and a front half of a floor and joining them together.

Yes, you might pay a few grams of a weight disadvantage doing it, but you have to outweigh that against the aerodynamic advantage.

So I think where Mercedes have got it wrong is they haven't adapted to that situation.

Through the ground effect era, they brought lots of stuff to the cars.

They didn't go over the budget cap.

But they never really were as competitive as they potentially should have been or we thought they would be during that Grand Effect era.

So now they're at a position where they started the season very strongly and quite a few other teams, and I'm using McLaren here as an example, you know, they fought hard for the championship right to the last race of 2025.

So they brought a car that was a baseline car that they could get up and running with these new regulations, get to work, get to know how to use the power unit and the harvesting and the deployment, etc, etc.

Knowing that they were going to develop the car.

as time went by.

So they knew they were going to dig into their cost cap quite well in the first half of the season at least.