Wolff looks to Honda: McLaren, Williams and Alpine face Mercedes' axe

19:18, 11 Dec

byNorberto Mujica

Mercedes CEO, team principal and co-owner Toto Wolff has said the team's power unit supplier role will be reviewed and one of its customer teams will be dropped.

"Our current mindset is, also discussing with Ola, that we will reduce the amount of teams we’re going to supply in the next cycle."

- Toto Wolff.

McLaren clinched the Constructors' and Drivers' title with Mercedes power units. Photo: RacePictures.

As of the end of the 2025 season Mercedes will no longer supply power units to the Lawrence Stroll-owned team, which will use Honda engines as of next season. Yet Wolff has stated the German outfit is looking to cut a team or two from its list of F1 customers.

“Our current mindset is, also discussing with Ola, that we will reduce the amount of teams we’re going to supply in the next cycle,” Wolff told the Beyond the Grid podcast, noting that “between two and three” customer teams would be the sweet spot.

Williams gardnered three podium finishes with Mercedes power units across the F1 2025 season. Photo: Race Pictures

Regarding the final number of teams Mercedes would consider continuing to provide engines for Wolff said “It depends on new regulations going forward.

"Are they rather simple or not? What is it we believe we can learn by supplying more [teams] whilst at the same time needing to lock in some designs earlier?”

In Honda's case, Wolff observes that the Japanese manufacturer is considerably under less pressure than Mercedes' power unit factory at Brixworth.

“If you’re Honda on your own [it will be] four or five. So that means longer lead times, longer production cycles.

“So [considering] all of that, going forward, it’s not going to be four anymore.”

Mercedes ponders on the pros and cons

Managing Director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains Hywel Thomas also weighed on the benefitial and detrimental factors behind supplyin power units to a large number of teams.

“We’ve shown in the past that having more than one team [means] you’re getting more data, you’re getting more information, you’re [covering] more kilometres,” he said of the upsides.

“Just because you’ve got all those cars. You’ve got four times the engineers all sitting around telling you ‘no, you can do this better, you can do this more this way’, and that is very, very beneficial to have all that coming at you. It doesn’t always feel like it, but it definitely is in terms of making a great product."

George Russell finished P4 in the Standings, with Mercedes locking P2 in the Constructors' in Abu Dhabi. Photo: Race Pictures

However, the intense workload, and the shorter times available to make key decisions mitigate the pros. “But the flip of that is we’ve got to make a lot of hardware," Thomas said.

"We have got to make a few decisions earlier. I’m not sure making those decisions earlier really hurts you sometimes because you can run things a bit too close to the wind, I think. That is the flip.

“I’m not even sure whether the right place is one team, two teams, three teams, four teams. I’m not sure. There’s definitely a sweet spot in there somewhere and I think it’s probably nearer four than one,” Thomas concluded.

Williams ups the ante for F1 2026

Williams ended a standout 2025 F1 season with three podiums and fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, a major jump from ninth in 2024. Team principal James Vowles said the progress exceeded expectations and was achieved without sacrificing focus on 2026. Read Vowles full comments here.

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