Mercedes F1 Foots $ 1 million repair bill after Grand Prix crash

Photo: Bryn Lennon (Getty Images)

When Valtteri Bottas and George Russell collided at the Emilia Romanga Grand Prix last weekend, it was clear it was a bad one. Pieces of carbon fiber were scattered on the track leading to a red flag for cleaning. While none of the drivers were physically injured, the teams suffered a huge blow where it really hurt: the paperback.

Mercedes noted that after Bottass’ car was disassembled, repairs would cost about a million pounds, or about $ 1.39 million. Motorsport.com Reports.

In a normal year that would not be significant. The Mercedes F1 team is one of the best financed teams on the grid. It has found its success through its ability to spend more money than its competition. That is all well and good. But not when it comes to cost caps.

If you missed it, F1 starts to Limit development costsThat said, you can only spend so much money building your car this year. Actually $ 145 million. And it’s not just about building this car – that budget also takes into account what it will cost to run and repair your car this year, as well as develop your car for the next year.

The teams responded to this challenge in a number of ways, many of which required a complete rethink of how they worked. You can no longer just throw a few dollar bills on the wall and see what’s stuck. You have to consciously plan and hope for the best.

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Here’s more from the motorsport article:

A large element of this cost saving is the fact that fewer parts are made and used during the season. Wherever possible, the parts have been redesigned to last longer and have more racing weekends.

In fact, Mercedes quietly put more steel, and therefore less carbon, into the W12’s suspension for cost reasons – the change added some weight, but it gives the parts a longer life.

The team also repurposed its W11 chassis as a W12 chassis instead of creating a number of new examples – Bottas 05 crashed for the record.

A massive crash like Bottas’s is a kick in the teeth. All of a sudden, you have to do a complete renovation of a chassis to repair any damage that has occurred – something you probably didn’t budget for.

The entire Motorsports article is really about the way other teams fight, but it’s really interesting to see how this process is likely to affect future races. Imola was obviously a bad weekend for Mercedes, but the repercussions could affect later races as the team struggles to find cost-effective ways to stay at the top of the grid (which has already proven to be a struggle for Mercedes).

From a fan’s point of view, different teams’ performance is likely to vary fascinatingly throughout the season. But it makes sense that manufacturers like Mercedes are going to ruin a bad weekend.