David Coulthard does not believe Mercedes will risk breaking cost cap rules next year in the wake of Red Bull's punishment for their 2021 overspend.
Last month the FIA revealed Red Bull had exceeded the budget cap the previous season by around £1.8m, which came down to £432k once a tax credit was applied. As punishment, they were fined £6m and will have 10% of their wind tunnel time taken away from them over the next 12 months.
Some rivals seemed underwhelmed by that punishment. Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin appeared to be one of them, as he baulked at Christian Horner's claim that his team gained no competitive advantage from the overspend, stressing: "Money buys performance".