Three current Formula One teams have already shown interest in using Mercedes customer cars should the regulations be opened up, according to team boss Toto Wolff.
At last week's Strategy Group meeting the prospect of customer cars was discussed as a possible cost-saving measure, although F1's smaller teams, which would be the potential customers, have publicly spoken out against such a proposal. Mercedes boss Wolff, who sits on the Strategy Group, insists that the customer car plans are only a contingency, but revealed three teams have already expressed interest.
"It's interesting they say that [they are against customer cars] because three of them came to see me about whether we could supply customer cars to them," Wolff said.
As recently as last year, Wolff said he was "personally against" customer cars, but he is now open to the idea if teams are struggling to fund the construction of their own cars under the current commercial agreements.
"I think we need to have a contingency plan in place and customer cars, or franchises, we have seen that in other sports, 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 will be looking very much into it.
"I think it is a good model. As a contingency plan it works, and if we can find a business case around it, we shouldn't rule it out."