Mercedes will miss an 18 inch tyre test at Paul Ricard next week, due to concerns about the budget cap. Mercedes were scheduled to head to Paul Ricard for two days of track time next week, running the 2019 mule car for the 18 inch tyre test as part of Pirelli's preparations for next year. The test was scheduled to be a wet weather tyre test. However, the team have pulled out of the test, as Toto Wolff confirmed during the Monaco GP press conference. "Yes, that's right. We are trying to make the budget cap which is not trivial," Wolff explained. "And we couldn't take the costs related to the to the tyre test and we wouldn't have been able to send our mechanics on such a long journey." The budget cap, introduced this year, sees teams restricted to a maximum budget of $145 million for the season. This cap is obviously quite a restriction for large teams like Mercedes, who have to severely restrict their spending in order to ensure compliance. "So the wet weather mileage would have taken us over the 5000 kilometres that is excluded from budget cap costs as part of the power unit supply perimeter," a Mercedes spokesperson explained to RacingNews365.com . "It would potentially, remember also, using a separate crew in order to run that test would have led to all of those people becoming included people rather than excluded people in the budget cap. "We don't have the budget cap the headroom and the leeway to carry those costs." Ferrari have confirmed they will take over the test instead, and are able to afford the test as they have not had the cost of repairs of a hefty crash, as Mercedes did in the wake of Valtteri Bottas' Imola smash with Williams' George Russell. "At Ferrari, we always said that 2022 summer is our priority over 2021 and testing Pirelli tyres is helping Pirelli developing the new tyres," said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto. "We believe it's important for us, lucky enough we didn't have a crash in Imola. So eventually we have some more contingency to Mercedes today. And so somehow we are happy to accept and support."
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