Stella calls Wolff’s bluff: ‘I actually don’t believe you’

McLaren F1 team boss Andrea Stella has called Toto Wolff’s bluff following the Mercedes chief’s claim that his team simply does not have the money to accelerate its Formula 1 development push.

Mercedes has remained surprisingly restrained on the upgrade front while McLaren and Ferrari have transformed their 2026 campaigns with an aggressive upgrade programme.

Both teams have now taken two wins apiece, steadily eroding the advantage Mercedes enjoyed earlier in the season.

Wolff insists the explanation is financial. With Mercedes working within the sport’s $215 million cost cap, the Austrian says the team has carefully allocated its spending throughout the campaign rather than exhausting its development budget early.

“We haven't got the money to put developments on the car. I said before that we are trying to evenly split that through the season based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimising the championship points. But we just can't do what we can't do,” Wolff said.

“You will see towards the end of the season whether they are going to be able to deploy as much stuff onto the car as they do now.

“Someone might have a different strategy in spending more at the beginning and the middle of the year than towards the end.”

Stella, however, was not buying it.

“I would like to believe you, but I actually don't believe you,” he said.

Stella points to Mercedes' hidden ammunition

The McLaren boss has a specific reason for his scepticism. The 2027 regulations bring substantial changes to F1’s power units and some areas of chassis design, with teams receiving an additional $3 million allowance in the cost cap to help prepare for the transition.

That provision, Stella believes, potentially gives Mercedes some financial breathing room to bring development parts to the track sooner rather than later.

“All teams will have an allowance in their reporting for the cost cap,” Stella said.

“And if I'm not wrong, it's like three million that you can use in the 2026 reporting for cost cap calculations.

“And I'm sure that Mercedes, having seen that their rivals are kind of elevating the game, I'm sure they will now cash in on their development that surely is happening in the ground.

“I'm sure the car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the car they have on track and they will want to now convert some of this potential into upgrades that make it to the real car. So, I'm just pretty sure that they will have upgrades. Obviously, it would be good if not, but I don't even want to think about it...”

Read also:

• Wolff’s shock Mercedes admission: ‘We haven’t got the money’

McLaren has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence since its early-season struggles, while Ferrari has also closed the gap, leaving Mercedes increasingly vulnerable to the very development war it has so far chosen to fight on its own terms.

Stella’s message is therefore clear: whatever Mercedes’ accounting strategy might be, he is not expecting the Brackley outfit to sit quietly and surrender its advantage.

And if his prediction proves correct, McLaren may soon discover whether Mercedes really was short of money – or simply keeping its powder dry.

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