$6billion Mercedes make bombshell claim in F1's upgrades race: 'We haven't got the money'

The Mercedes F1 team is worth $6billion, but team principal Toto Wolff says they 'haven't got the money' to keep pace with their rivals in 2026. Welcome to the cost cap era.

The 54-year-old Austrian (who himself owns a 28 percent stake in the Silver Arrows) made the shocking admission in the aftermath of Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

Wolff looked on as his drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were beaten by the resurgent McLaren of reigning world champion Lando Norris. A team which won the first six races of the season is all of a sudden not dominant any more.

Both Ferrari and McLaren have been extremely aggressive in their upgrades so far this season, and both have two recent race victories to show for their efforts. The gap from Mercedes to the rest has unquestionably narrowed, significantly.

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Wolff says the F1 cost cap is a very real thing

But Wolff, per the BBC, says right now Mercedes are powerless to stem the tide as he admitted: "We haven't got the money to put developments on the car.

"We are trying to evenly split that through the season, based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimising the championship points.

"But we just can do what we can do. That's why it is a development race. If you bring an upgrade, each of the top teams will have a couple of 10ths in it, at least. And that's what you lose.

"So, yeah, the ride has been a bit tougher than at the beginning of the year."

F1's $2.3billion arms race is a guessing game

The reason for Wolff's reticence to go on a development spending spree of course is the $215million cost cap that every team must operate under in 2026. While driver salaries, for example, do not count, all car development costs do.

Mercedes are extremely successful from a commercial standpoint (they announced post-tax profits of $171m on revenues of $863m for 2025) and that $6billion valuation comes from Wolff selling a 5 percent stake for $300million in late 2025.

But despite that, they have a very strict budget when it comes to car upgrades. The cost cap era is now a $2.3billion arms race (across the 11 teams) with a guessing game around who exactly has spent what to date.

How can Ferrari and McLaren be so aggressive?

When asked about how McLaren and Ferrari have been able to show such aggression with their upgrades, Wolff cautioned: "You will see how towards the end of the season (whether) they are going to be able to deploy as much stuff on to the car as they do now.

"Someone might have a different strategy in spending more at the beginning and in the middle of the year than towards the end."

Despite their rivals apparently closing the gap in recent races, Mercedes remain in a very healthy position in both championship races.

Antonelli leads Russell and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton by 59 points in the drivers' standings while the team heads Ferrari by 87 points in the constructors' title race.

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