Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has put its three customer Formula 1 teams on notice by announcing his intention to cut the number down by at least one in the future.
The German marque has been supplying three teams, as well as itself, since 2021, in the shape of McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams, therefore powering nearly half the whole grid.
Aston has departed upon the conclusion of this season, and will switch to Honda power, the Japanese outfit returning fully to F1 next year.
But Mercedes will have three customers again next year, with Alpine taking Aston’s place, the Enstone-based squad switching from its previous OEM status via Renault.
All three teams have contracts to run Mercedes power units for the next five seasons, but Wolff revealed on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast that he has held discussions with its Chairman Ola Kallenius about bringing the number of customers down.
“Our current mindset is, also discussing with Ola, that we will reduce the amount of teams we’re going to supply in the next cycle,” he said, adding the optimum number of teams to power is “between two and three, I guess.”
“It depends on new regulations going forward,” Wolff added. “Are they rather simple or not? What is it we believe we can learn by supplying more [teams] whilst at the same time needing to lock in some designs earlier?”
Wolff cited Honda as an example, as it will be solely supplying Aston, as a comparison, given that Mercedes will be required to produce 16 power units across its teams.
“If you’re Honda on your own [it will be] four or five. So that means longer lead times, longer production cycles.
“So [considering] all of that, going forward, it’s not going to be four anymore.”
Regardless, Mercedes has been given the early status as ‘favourites’ in terms of powertrains, ensuring that its four teams will have additional focus of them upon arrival in Melbourne for Round 1 in March.
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