Three teams approached Mercedes over customer cars

Toto Wolff says three teams have approached Mercedes about the possibility of being supplied with a customer car in future.

A meeting of the Strategy Group last week resulted in a number of proposals to improve the spectacle of Formula One, but no movement on cost cutting or a more equitable revenue distribution. With the top teams obliged to run a third car if the grid shrinks to less than 16 cars, Bernie Ecclestone has been an advocate of customer cars to ensure a substantial grid.

While constructors’ such as Williams, Force India and Sauber have openly said they are against such a move, when asked about opposition from teams Wolff says three approached him this week regarding the possibility of purchasing cars in the future.

“It’s interesting that [teams] say that, because three of them came to me [on Friday] to see if we can supply customer cars to them,” Wolff said. “So it’s not true. I think it’s a good model, as a contingency plan it works and if we can find a business case around it then we shouldn’t rule it out.”

And Wolff says he is open to the idea of Mercedes supplying cars to customers, saying he would prefer to provide cars to teams which are currently constructors rather than new entrants.

“We need to have a contingency plan in place and customer cars or franchises we've seen in other sports - we’ve seen it in NASCAR - and it functions pretty well. So if the contingency is about supplying our cars to customer teams, hopefully current teams, then yes we would be looking very much at it.

“Obviously it’s a case of how we finance that and what the regulations - sporting and technical regulations - are around that, but I wouldn’t rule that out.”

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