News24.com | Mercedes: Staff redundancies on the horizon

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Mercedes: Staff redundancies on the horizon

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Toto Wolff (Getty Images)
Toto Wolff (Getty Images)

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admitted the inevitability of staff reductions due to sport's upcoming budget cap from the 2021 season.

This is all down to the upcoming budget cap which from next year will require teams to slash their spending to $145m per season with only a handful of exceptions.

That cap will reduce further over the coming years and it is the three highest-spending teams, them being Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, who are expecting to be hit hardest by this.

And Wolff confirmed that even though the team is trying to find new positions for their staff, redundancies are going to be made.

This is Money reports that Mercedes' accounts showed they spent £321.5million in 2018 on Formula 1.

"The cost cap means there will be redundancies but we are giving it our utmost efforts to find interesting opportunities for the people we won't be able to accommodate," he told Thisismoney.co.uk.

He added that it's still at the "‘decision-making stage" because "the restructuring needs to be terminated by the end of June 2021. This is when these people need to be off the F1 payroll."

Wolff recently bought a stake in British car brand Aston Martin, and that sparked rumours that he was going to get involved with their Formula 1 team which is coming from 2021.

That came about after Lawrence Stroll bought a stake in the company, with part of the deal seeing his Racing Point team transform into Aston Martin F1.

But Wolff insists he is just investing into an "undervalued" brand in Aston Martin, and he will not become CEO of the company, never mind its F1 team even though his Mercedes contract expires at the end of the year.

"I'm not going to be the CEO and I'm not going to be sitting on the board," he confirmed.

"I am just in there as one of the investors who believe that this could fly. I believe that the Aston Martin brand is undervalued, even considering the financial metrics of a relatively high debt rate and slow car sales. The SUV will be a game changer."

Wolff added that "my intention is to stay" with Mercedes.

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