F1: Mercedes Could Race Elsewhere to Keep F1 Staff
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has suggested that the German manufacturer could well race in other catagories alongside its existing race programmes, in order to keep the staff lost from its F1 team due to the forthcoming cost cap in 2021.
The cost cap is currently set to be reduced from $175M in 2020, to $145M in 2021 and $135M in 2022, with various teams set to be making staff reduntant to help cope with the reduced budget. McLaren have already announced to be making 1200 staff reduntant, 70 of which from its F1 team.
If Mercedes were to do this, it would follow behind Ferrari in doing a similar thing. Ferrari are understood to be in talks with Roger Penske, owner of the IndyCar Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Team Penske, over an IndyCar entry for when the series in 2022, to coincide with the series going hybrid.
Mercedes's current operations include its F1 programme and its Formula E programme. The manufacturer left the DTM championship at the end of 2018, but would be unlikely to return to the series given the current uncertainty of DTM's future. However a return could well be what saves the German Touring Car Championship, so its not out of the question.
What is more likely is for Mercedes to return to top level endurance racing, with a car designed either to WEC's LM Hypercar specs or IMSA's LMDh specs. If this were to happen, it would make sense to be based off the AMG Project One hypercar.
Mercedes-AMG Project One
The statement in full from Toto Wolff:
"First of all we're living in a financial reality that is very different to pre-COVID," said Wolff. "And we have accepted the lower budget cap and it is a must that successful F1 franchises earn money rather than lose money.
"For us it is also a way of making sure that Daimler not only appreciates the sporting and marketing benefits of the platform, but also to make it as cost neutral as possible. And I believe this is why we need to support such a cost cap.
"For us it means readjusting, it means changing the way we do things, and deploy personnel in new areas. We have a very strong department that is called Mercedes Benz Applied Science, where we work for high performance clients, and deploy our services.
"And who knows? Maybe we will look at other race categories in order to keep the resource, and keep the human resource and intellectual property, within Mercedes.
"There's always some kind of campaign and agenda going on. I think it's clear that every automotive company faces difficult and insecure times.
"Every single day you open up a magazine, or a newspaper, it's about VW, or Renault or Fiat or Daimler. And in that respect, I completely understand that our sporting platform is being questioned.
"The top management of Mercedes very much sees Formula 1 as a core activity. We build road cars, and we build race cars. And actually the first ever car was a race car.
"And in that respect, we don't see it simply as a marketing platform that generates valuable marketing dollars, but we see it as a core exercise. There is a technology transfer between the road and Formula 1, and it's not being criticised within Daimler.
"Nevertheless, we discuss all our activities and all our investments every single year. And I think we're just a target of somebody that wants to create some headlines and then maybe have more clicks."
