Toto Wolff has rejected the FIA’s plans to cap the price of engines to customers to approximately €12million, insisting Mercedes already make a substantial loss supplying engines already.
Ferrari have already vetoed the plans to reduce the cost of customer engines from its current approximate of €20million, with Mercedes-Benz’s Wolff saying it would be unsustainable for manufacturers to supply an engine for so little money.
Mercedes currently supply Williams Martini Racing, Sahara Force India and the Lotus F1 Team with engines in 2015, with the latter being replaced by the Manor F1 Team next season.
“We already lose money on the engine side, substantial,” said Wolff. “The question is how much more do we lose if we continue to subsidise those engines to some of our partners, but it’s already a deficit.
“The partners expect the most competitive engine. In order to have that, because it is a competitive environment, we spent substantial amounts in developing those engines.
“Nobody has ever asked us how we plan to recover those or if someone can contribute to help us to recover.
“You can argue whether the marketing benefit of the development spend is right of wrong, but as a matter of fact, we live in a world where we are all facing a commercial reality.
“That commercial reality is that we need to be as efficient as possible and try to recover the best possible amount. You cannot expect of anybody, any stakeholder in the sport, to have a charitable approach.”
