Toto Wolff admitted that, if Mercedes cannot win the Constructors’ Championship themselves, he’d “much rather be beaten by a customer team” than a factory rival.
McLaren earned their first Constructors’ title since 1998 with Lando Norris taking victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, with the works Mercedes team having finished fourth this season.
Toto Wolff: ‘Much rather’ be beaten by customer team than factory rival
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
McLaren fended off the challenge of Ferrari to win their first Constructors’ Championship for 26 years, while using Mercedes power – making it a title for Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division this season.
With the presence of other factory teams on the grid, Wolff explained that seeing one of their power unit customers win the Constructors’ Championship this season eliminates one of the variables that would prevent their understanding of competing at the front themselves.
“To be honest, if we can’t win as a works team, I’d much rather be beaten by a customer team,” Wolff explained to media including PlanetF1.com.
“I have zero problem with that, because it gives shows us where the benchmark is.
“There’s no discussions about performance levels of the engine, no discussions about drivability of the engine, energy deployment or harvesting. None of that.
“World Champion is our customer team. They have equal material. We fight on same terms, and if they have a better chassis or better execution or better drivers, then that’s completely fine for us.
“And this is a this is a success also for Mercedes motorsport. Success for Mercedes and a success for HPP [High Performance Powertrains], whilst we know that our works team is by far the primary objective to win.”
It was written into the Formula 1 regulations that customer engines have to receive performance parity with their works partners, to ensure that power unit deals are not weighted in favour of factory teams.
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While there remain constraints on teams who produce cars without their own power units, such as the basic layout underneath the car, a significant amount of car design remains up to interpretation.
Wolff added that, given the additional aerodynamic testing restriction [ATR] allowance Mercedes will have as part of finishing lower in the Constructors’ standings, they will look to use that extra wind tunnel time to their advantage if they can, but McLaren’s success came down to much more than that.
“I think it was our mentality in the, let’s say, new era, that not only the regulations say you need to be on equal material, but it’s also how we take it,” he said when discussing the regulations that enabled power unit performance parity.
“That’s why the question is, do you want to be beaten by a customer team? I’d rather be beaten by a customer team and know what the benchmark lies.
“From that perspective, they have equal opportunity like we do. When you look at cost cap, clearly that has an effect. You look at ATR, we are fourth in the championship.
“Now that is 20% more ATR than the McLaren, which is advantageous. This is where they were in the past, but that is not the reason why they won.
“They won because of good engineering. As simple as it is, great engineering, bright leadership, good drivers. Two drivers that were scoring, and you have to give them all credit for that.
“When you consider where McLaren came from a year and a half [ago], they weren’t even making it out of Q1. They became a race-winning car at the end of last year, and they win a Constructor.
“I mean, somebody would have said that to us two years ago, [I would have said] ‘Which planet are you living?’”
While still thrilled at the outcome, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella did not take added satisfaction from becoming a customer team to be Constructors’ champions as a result of these regulations, instead lauding the FIA for enabling a platform where teams can compete on a playing field where this was possible in the first place.
“In itself, it’s not particularly satisfying because I think nowadays, thanks to the regulations, thanks to the good work that the FIA have done in terms of creating parity, as to the way the engine is used between customer and works teams,” Stella said in response to a question from PlanetF1.com about winning the Constructors’ crown as a customer team.
“To be honest, we are pretty relaxed that the performance of the customer power units is as good as the as the work teams.
“Also, we have a very good relationship with HPP, very open dialogue, and while we appreciate and acknowledge that ultimately, it’s always going to be Mercedes that will have the final say as to our layout, for instance, but I think the dialogue with HPP is good, and we know that they are listening to our opinions.
“And once again, I would like to say that this is good work that has happened by the FIA in protecting customer teams so that they could have their opportunities to win races and championships, without having to be a works team.”
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