Mercedes F1 to AXE McLaren engines? Toto Wolff admits plan to cut supply to rivals

Toto Wolff talks on a phone in front of a McLaren background — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Mercedes to AXE McLaren engines? Toto Wolff admits plan to cut supply to rivals

Mercedes were beaten by their customer team

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Friday 12 December 2025 19:43

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Toto Wolff has admitted Mercedes are considering scaling back the F1 customer teams that they supply engines to.

In 2026, Mercedes will provide power units for McLaren, Alpine and Williams, with deals to use their engines until 2030.

Wolff revealed after a recent conversation with Mercedes chairman Ola Kallenius however, that the team were considering reducing the amount of teams they supply power units to, meaning McLaren, Alpine or Williams could receive the chop.

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“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 said on F1 Beyond the Grid.

“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?”

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

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

How will F1 engines change in 2026?

The 2026 F1 regulations reset will introduce all new power units ran on a 50-50 split between electric power and the internal combustion engine.

F1 will still use 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines which were introduced in 2014, a set of hybrid power unit regulations that saw Mercedes dominate the first three years of the new rule set.

Mercedes will have the largest power unit presence in 2026, supplying four teams in total and more than their rival manufacturers: Ferrari (three), Red Bull-Ford (two), Honda (one) and Audi (one).

In the past two seasons Mercedes have been bested by their customer team McLaren, who have won back-to-back constructors' championships and their first drivers' title since 2008 with Mercedes powered engines.

When McLaren won the 2025 constructors' title back in Singapore, Wolff said to Sky Sports: "If it's not us that can win the championship, then obviously a McLaren powered by a Mercedes engine is something good.

"Whatever our shortcomings, they were for sure not on the engine side. So yeah, a McLaren-Mercedes as constructors' champion is good."