F1: Mercedes rolling out more upgrades with no regard to cost cap

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff had admitted that the team are unable to bring a new Formula 1 chassis in the 2023 season due to the cost cap.

However, Mercedes technical director James Allison has confirmed the team will continue their upgrade push this weekend in Barcelona, as part of a “whole bunch more things” that will be added to the W14 in the coming races.

The team rolled out their first significant upgrade package of the season in Monaco, but they have a plethora of more upgrades coming by copying superior teams like Red Bull.

Wolff explained that the Spanish Grand Prix will double up as a data-gathering exercise for the team as the uniqueness of Monaco does not lend itself into being a useful testing venue, but the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – a long-time test circuit for the sport – very much fits the bill.

“Well, we certainly will settle back and look at what the Monaco upgrade package has brought us at a more normal track, but we will also push on in parallel with a whole bunch more things,” Allison said in Mercedes’ post-Monaco debrief.

“So, there will be a little bit we’re bringing to Barcelona and many more things in the races that follow.

“We can’t afford just to do everything sequentially. Although there’s a sort of academic purity to that, it’s just too slow a way of going ahead, so the upgrades will keep coming.

“Hopefully a decent package to build upon what we put on the track in in Monaco, and then we just step forward from here up to the summer break and beyond.”