Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted the Silver Arrows’ upgrades in Brazil this weekend are “basically it” for the rest of the year, due to cost cap constraints. Several high-speed crashes have eaten into the team’s budget this season, with Wolff highlighting three in recent months which created a “tremendous hit” regarding repairs. Mercedes highlight three impacts to create ‘tremendous hit’ on cost capAdditional reporting by Elizabeth BlackstockWolff pointed to two recent crashes from George Russell in Austin and Mexico City, along with Kimi Antonelli’s FP1 incident at Monza earlier in the season, as moments that caused a significant cost in repair bills for the team.

The Mercedes team boss has long been a defender of his drivers finding the limit, adding that he would rather see repairs have to be made than leave time on the table, but that does leave a “tricky situation” because of the spending constraints now in place in Formula 1. With four rounds left, he admitted there is no longer scope to add costly upgrades to the car, and the team need to be “creative” in how parts are deployed for the rest of the season. Discussing how crashes have had an impact on the team’s upgrade potential for the rest of the year, Wolff told media including PlanetF1.

com: “So Kimi’s crash in Monza, George’s crash in Austin, George’s crash here [Mexico], which, you know, allow the driver to push – and I’d rather have a crash and we know what the car is capable of doing than not. More on the cost cap and what’s next in Formula 1👉 Explained: How Formula 1’s budget cap rules are enforced by the FIA👉 F1 schedule: When is the next F1 race and where is it being held? “In cost cap land, nevertheless, it’s a tricky situation.

So, these three shunts put us on the back foot, and certainly the one that happened before yesterday was massive. “We had to change. We had to opt for a completely new chassis, that is a tremendous hit in the cost cap, and we probably have to dive down on what we put on the car.

“So we will be having two upgrade packages in Brazil, two floors, but that’s basically it, there’s nothing else that’s going to come. “We have certain limitation on parts where we need to be creative. Are we managing this?

– And certainly there is an impact. There is an impact on how many development parts we can put on the car, because the answer is zero. ”After Russell’s crash at Turn 19 in Austin, the Briton revealed team-mate Lewis Hamilton offered him his upgraded spec Mercedes parts, though the team did not put them on his car.

Should the pair want to run newer or older parts on their car, Wolff said he is willing to listen to what his duo have to say. “I’m always open-minded about what the drivers think,” he added. “If I’m certain that George is going to go for the new and Lewis may want to back-to-back the old floor now in Brazil, we will certainly talk with him what his preference is.

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