Mercedes willing to supply demand for customer cars

According to Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff three Formula 1 teams approached the German marque this weekend about the possibility of acquiring 'customer cars' if rules allow.

Speaking to reporters in Monaco, the Austrian suggested some smaller constructors would be willing to run cars provided by their rivals, contrary to media reports suggesting that the smaller teams were up in arms over the concept.

"It's interesting they say that because three of them came to see me [on Friday] about whether we could supply customer cars to them," Wolff said.

Though critics say tweaking the rules to allow ‘customer cars’ would lead to a two-tier scenario in Formula 1 and preserve the dominance of the major manufacturers, proponents say that is already the case, insisting more must be done to reduce the cost of competing and ensure there are enough cars on the grid.

At present, Force India and Lotus both use Mercedes power units but both have reiterated their intention to race their own cars as current rules stipulate. Williams also use Mercedes engines while Sauber and Marussia utilise Ferrari units.

"I think we need to have a contingency plan in place and customer cars, or franchises, we have seen that in other sports, in Nascar, and it functions pretty well," said Wolff.

"So if the contingency is about supplying our cars to customer teams, hopefully current teams, then yes we will be looking very much into it. I think it is a good model. As a contingency plan it works, and if we can find a business case around it, we shouldn't rule it out."

Wolff’s view is somewhat unsurprising given Mercedes’ current dominance but it seems the proposal has high-level support in the form of Bernie Ecclestone, who has said he would be willing to see cars supplied to smaller teams at a fixed cost.

"You make all the chassis the same and we do a deal with one of the engine suppliers. It should work,” Ecclestone said, giving a vague outline of how the proposal would operate in practice.

“We’ll supply two chassis complete by 1st January for US$15 million. We’ll pay. If it costs more we have to pay more, if it’s less that’s good for us. And they have to race. The lowest team gets US$50 million anyway, so they would have two cars, plus US$35 million.”