You say less than expected, but what is generally expected? Hard to say.turbof1 wrote:It will make sense however that Mercedes, and probably also the others, will spend les tokens then expected at the beginning of the season. That free upgrade is really significant. I also believe most if not all manufacturers will have quite a few token points left over at the end. There will be no strategic use for them for next year, and they might not have enough tokens left to make any useful alterations at that point.
It'll depend on the gains made by Ferrari. If the advantage Mercedes has, is in danger, they might start taking risks actually.
Care to elaborate why it makes sense to spend less tokens than expected, at the start of the season? By that i figure you mean withholding upgrades. That doesn't make any sense to me. Like you say, next years free-for-all is significant, as it affects this years strategy. There is no reason for them to hold back any development items as long as they can bring them to the track reliably and validated. Which is exactly what i originally said.
I disagree on your last point. I think Ferrari has very little to do with Mercedes PU development; they will push forward no matter what. Monza 2015 is the prime example, they didn't need to risk anything but to some extent they did. These PU's are guaranteed to be in the sport until 2020, Mercedes will work as hard as they can knowing they'll have good use of any gain they're able to make.
