Mercedes has revealed it boosted spending on
F1 by 17% to a record £325M last year, "which won them
the constructors’ championship at the weekend and has put Lewis Hamilton
on track to win the drivers' title," according to Christian Sylt for the London INDEPENDENT. Hamilton won Sunday's Russian Grand Prix and the victory "handed
Mercedes the constructors' title for the first time in the 64-year
history of the sport." The "secret to their success has been
turbo-charging their spending." Company documents for Mercedes' F1 engine manufacturing division in
Northamptonshire show that in '13 it spent £133.9M, which is "nearly
double the budget they had just three years earlier." Mercedes' costs now
come to "nearly double those of the sport’s lowest-spending team,
Caterham." In addition to the £133.9M cost of its engines, Mercedes spent a "staggering" £190.7M "just on running the F1 team." It is the "highest amount" spent since Mercedes "took over the outfit" at the end of '09. Next year, Mercedes will "lose McLaren as a customer when they switch to
Honda engines." However, it has a replacement "waiting in the wings as
Lotus, currently languishing in eighth place, announced recently that
they will switch their under-performing Renault engine for a more
powerful Mercedes" (INDEPENDENT, 10/13).
