The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola was full of incidents. We’ve already written about Lewis Hamilton’s rare mistake of carefully stepping out of a gravel trap, but the greatest drama of all came from his teammate Valtteri Bottas as he battled Williams’ George Russell for ninth place.
The 200-mile entanglement sent both cars into the barriers, littered the track with debris and spawned a red flag. Fortunately, none of the drivers were seriously injured, but the news wasn’t so rosy for the cars. Mercedes-AMG F1 has since announced that the damage bill for Bottas’ ailing W12 will weigh a cool million pounds. The chassis and power supply should be able to work again, but little else could be saved.
For a team like Merc, this wouldn’t normally be an issue, but there’s one big difference this year – a cost cap of $ 145 million (£ 104 million). This covers development, construction, and racing costs, and with Mercedes struggling to stay below that number, a large bill like this is rather undesirable.
Even the minor damage inflicted on Hamilton in the race was cause for concern. Motorsport quotes Merc boss Andrew Shovlin as saying:
“If you have a bunch of such major accidents that cause significant damage and that was bad for us because we also had a front wing with Lewis, then that will definitely exceed our allocation for what we have available to for the Output parts.
“In an ideal world, you bring it to life, you don’t break it, whatever you break, hopefully it’s the end of life or something that will soon be out of date. But that’s definitely not the case here.
“So it’s really a cost cap factor, and the money has to come from somewhere. If it becomes a major problem, it can ultimately drain your development budget. So we have to be aware of what happens next. “
A full write-off, Shovlin says, is the ultimate fear, but luckily it was avoided this time around. Already now, the W12 is designed to be more cost-effective – it is made from a reused W11 chassis, says Motorsport, and the car uses more steel in its construction than its predecessor, replacing some of the expensive carbon fiber.
While Mercedes isn’t in immediate trouble, future big hits could cause serious problems, especially as the battle with Red Bull appears to be much closer this year. A development war with an arch rival won’t come cheap, especially during a 23 race calendar.
Feature image via YouTube screenshot / Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team
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