Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has ruled out the possibility of the German manufacturer joining the World Endurance Championship or returning to the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours in its top flight class any time soon, citing concerns over a specific area of the series’ regulations.
Wolff made it clear that as long as race officials continue adjusting car performance through Balance of Performance (BoP) rules – which aim to level the playing field by regulating power outputs and minimum weights – Mercedes will stay firmly focused on Formula 1.
Speaking recently on Bloomberg’s Hot Pursuit podcast, Wolff expressed frustration with the idea of success being handicapped through artificial performance adjustments.
“You spend so much time and money and effort in developing the quickest car and then you’re being [told to] put 10 kilograms of ballast into this car,” he said. “And I just want to build the quickest car.”
BoP has been a hallmark of the WEC’s Hypercar class, the top tier of the series which includes the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours.
Under this system, the FIA and series organisers determine each car’s power and weight limits to ensure parity across a diverse field of manufacturers. But for Wolff and Mercedes chairman Ola Källenius, that’s a step too far from what racing should be.
Wolff: “Give us a cost cap, not BoP”
Instead of performance balancing, Wolff advocates for a financial model similar to the one use in Formula 1, where budget restrictions aim to level competition without altering engineering achievement.
“Formula 1 has shown how it goes,” Wolff said. “Give us a cost cap. Do Le Mans, give everybody a cost cap, you cannot spend more than ‘x’, whatever you said, 30, 40 million. And within this 30, 40 million, then you can do what you want."
Ferrari's #51 499P Hypercar competing at Le Mans this year.
“Still there’s regulations, but nobody needs to bluff in pre-season racing or in qualifying. It’s war, it’s gloves off, pure racing.
“If that was to happen, Le Mans absolutely would be something that we would be looking at. But at the moment, BoP, having some officials judge whether you’re quick or too quick, putting 10 kilograms in your car, taking it out from someone else the next day, not for us at the moment.”
A race steeped in history – and pain – for Mercedes
Mercedes has a storied and dramatic history at Le Mans. While the manufacturer triumphed in 1952, and again much later in 1989 in partnership with Sauber, its participation in 1955 was marred in tragedy.
A few hours into the race, Mercedes works driver Pierre Levegh clashed with another car on the pit straight and was launched into the crowd, killing at least 82 people including the unfortunate Frenchman.
Mercedes withdrew from all racing after that before it returned to the track over three decades later.
Mercedes' 1999 Le Mans squad (©Mercedes-Benz)
But in 1999, the team was involved in three major crashes with its CLR LMGTP cars, with Mark Webber going spectacularly airborne in qualifying and in the Saturday morning warm-up while Peter Dumbreck also took to the skies just a few hours into the race.
Mercedes-Benz immediately withdrew the remaining CLR #6 and dropped out of sportscar racing for the immediate future.
Read also: Mercedes to resume push in Austria with refined W16 package
Despite that painful past, Wolff remains emotionally connected to the race and holds it in high regard.
“I’m a racer, the Le Mans 24 Hours is one of the greatest races in the world,” he said. “Formula 1, for me, obviously with my bias, is the best there is. It’s the best drivers, quickest cars, the greatest tracks, and then there is a long time nothing."
“But if I would say what’s next, Le Mans 24 Hours, Indy 500 and – that is really one for insiders in the Nordschleife – is the Nürburgring 24 hours. That for me is the top of the top.”
©Mercedes
“When I’m not having a Formula 1 weekend, I can watch a Le Mans race pretty much through the night. I’m following the live feed. I know some of the drivers, so I have a personal interest."
“As Mercedes, it’s something that we did in the past. That wasn’t our happiest place. We had a very bad accident in the fifties when we exited. And then some of our prototypes have been flying, taking off, in the nineties.”
Formula 1 remains the core focus
While Wolff admires endurance racing from a distance, he reaffirmed that Mercedes has no desire to dilute its efforts by splitting attention between F1 and WEC.
“But what it is for me today is we are concentrating on the main platform and that is Formula 1. It’s what we want to do, right? This captures 99% of the audience and everything else comes second.”
Unless the WEC adopts a cost-cap model akin to that of Formula 1, Mercedes will continue to channel its efforts into dominating the pinnacle of motorsport, leaving its Le Mans legacy in the history books.
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