Wolff on Budget Cap: ‘I would take it every single day of the week'

Mercedes finished off a rather imbalanced weekend in Baku. Lewis Hamilton did better than expected in qualifying, George Russell made up for his P11 from Friday on Saturday, but come race day the two drivers finished P6 and P8 respectively, along with a lack of speed to overtake in the straights. Yet, Wolff is not discouraged by this performance, and looks forward to catching up to Red Bull "on merit."

Yes to the Budget Cap

Toto Wolff was asked about in the post-race press conference where GPblog is present among others, whether he supports the introduction of the budget cap to the sport. The Austrian had a clear stance regarding this question. “It is a process. Our finance department has gone from 15 to 45, so that’s quite sizable. Again, I think, the cost cap was necessary in Formula 1 and if you tell me ‘cost cap yes or no?,’ I would take it every single day of the week, the cost cap. It’s important, it’s more sustainable.”

The Mercedes team principal was also clear on not favouring any regulation changes, and wanting to beat Red Bull on and off the track during this era. “At least we have seen that they were pushing, so that is the real pace. But half a second, and it’s quite a long way to go, so we either have to do a better job, all of us together to catch them up, or change the regulations and I don’t think we should be doing the second one. I think we just need to win on merit, winning on merit means being more clever and having a steeper development slope than Red Bull.”

New Upgrades for Mercedes

Just like his drivers, Wolff was questioned about the upcoming upgrades Mercedes is looking to bring in the future. “The target is Imola. I just need to manages everybody’s expectations because you are talking so much about that upgrade, we are not going to put it down on track and drive circles around Red Bull. So it’s gonna be a good baseline I think,” the Austrian added.