‘You have to do it at the right time’ – Wolff thinks Ferrari might ‘run out’ of update spending after ‘throwing things at their car’

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff believes that Ferrari might "be running out of cost cap soon" as the Scuderia continue to bring upgrades to their 2026 challenger.

Ferrari have generally been closest rivals to Mercedes during the season so far, with Lewis Hamilton's victory in Barcelona the only time a non-Mercedes driver has won on a Sunday.

The new-for-2026 regulations mean teams are constantly improving their cars during the season in a rapid development race, with Ferrari bringing a small power unit upgrade last weekend in Austria.

But while Ferrari have closed the performance gap to Mercedes, Wolff believes that the budget cap means that the Italian team will be unable to continue at the same rate of development throughout the entire season.

"We’re running hard on updates in the [wind] tunnel, and on paper we have already a decent upgrade, but we’re not deploying yet," said Wolff, after watching George Russell claim victory in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

"You have to do it at the right time. Ferrari have been throwing things at their car massively, I guess they will be running out of cost cap soon, because we couldn’t do it, because we simply haven’t got the margin financially. Let’s see where that leads them."

Wolff added that it appeared only Ferrari were able to continue pushing through with upgrades at most races, with both McLaren and Red Bull pacing themselves with 14 races of the season still remaining.

"The only ones who are not slowing down is Ferrari. I mean, between McLaren, Red Bull and ourselves, you can see we had one big one that we introduced in Montreal," added Wolff.

"We have small parts that come in between. I think the same for Red Bull and McLaren. It's just Ferrari, who seems to be limitless in that way."

Red Bull did bring a larger upgrade package ahead of its home race at the Red Bull Ring, with Max Verstappen using it to challenge Russell for victory.

The Dutchman split the Mercedes drivers and was only 1.6 seconds from victory, with Wolff wary of the threat the four-time World Champion could pose having overturned a 104-point margin last season.

"Max is always good for playing a role in the championship. That car performed well this weekend. I think the biggest factor this weekend was Max, to be honest," said Wolff, with Verstappen now 98 points behind Kimi Antonelli in the Drivers' standings.

"He's able to bring out everything that is in that car. You can see that with his team mates. That's why you can never, ever discount or underestimate the Verstappen factor for a championship."