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Toto Wolff made headlines during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend by questioning the pace and scale of Ferrari’s 2026 development.
Ferrari made use of their ADUO privileges by bringing the first of two permitted engine upgrades to Austria, only two weeks on from a major aerodynamic package in Barcelona.
“Ferrari has been throwing things at their car massively,” Mercedes team principal Wolff told F1TV after the race. “I guess they’ll be running out of the cost cap soon, because we couldn’t do it, we simply haven’t got the margin financially. So, let’s see where that leads them.”
Helmut Marko: Red Bull once had questions about Mercedes spending
It’s unclear whether Wolff was raising a genuine grievance in Spielberg and attempting to put pressure on the FIA. But intentionally or otherwise, it has certainly placed scrutiny on Ferrari.
F1-Insider asked former Red Bull executive Helmut Marko whether it would be possible for a team to circumvent the cost cap, which is currently set at $215m (£162m).
Let’s hear your podium predictions for the British Grand Prix 🍾
Marko revealed that, ironically, Red Bull were suspicious of Mercedes either side of F1’s last major regulation change.
He doesn’t think the FIA can maintain a complete record of how companies on the scale of Mercedes and Ferrari are allocating their enormous resources.
“For normal teams, this is virtually impossible,” he said. “With car manufacturers like Mercedes or Ferrari, I’m not so sure. How can the FIA control things if, in today’s digital age, research centres in Maranello or at Mercedes aren’t also working on Formula 1?
“In 2021 and 2022, we were also surprised by how many updates Mercedes brought back then. And how they were able to do it within the cost cap. Now Mercedes is the one wondering.”
It’s worth noting that there’s no indication of any wrongdoing from Ferrari. The suggestion is that they have simply frontloaded their upgrades more than rival teams, so their rate of development will slow considerably from here.
While Williams and Aston Martin have been guilty of procedural breaches, Red Bull are the only team who have overspent since the cost cap regulations were introduced in 2021. They were fined £5.3m the following year and saw their wind tunnel time reduced by 10%.
There were rumours last year of further offences, but none of these came to pass in the delayed announcement.
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