But ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, where the W14 will undergo major upgrades, the German manufacturer has also revealed plans for a major revamp of its Brackley factory.

Mercedes has given its campus its biggest overhaul to date as part of a £70m commitment to upgrade its facilities since 2017.

It plans to make it more pedestrian-friendly and will build a new marketing building, leisure facilities and restaurants to help improve the working environment for teams. It is hoped that work will be completed by the end of 2025.

Team boss Toto Wolff says he doesn’t just want the finished factory to be the best in F1; he wants it to rival the best in Silicon Valley.

“In our sport we don’t position ourselves as our competitors,” he told Autosport in an exclusive interview.

“We’re positioning ourselves as the best technology park in America that we know. That’s the ambition.”

To the cynic, such spending might seem boring – not least because in the era of F1’s cost caps, teams need to spend every penny they can to make their cars go faster.

After all, with the current competitiveness of the grid, a tenth of a second freed by a new development is worth a few jobs last Saturday afternoon.

Aerial view of Mercedes factory

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

But what’s important to understand about the motivation behind Mercedes’ factory overhaul is that it’s not about making cars faster today; it’s largely about making sure they’re faster tomorrow.

Wolff has made no secret of the fact that the motivation behind Brackley’s changes is to deliver where and what F1’s top talent wants to work in.

As a result of F1’s cost cap restrictions (and the fact that facilities such as campus changes are not covered by the rules), one thing teams have realized is that there is increasing competition to attract the best staff and keep them.

Wolf said the new campus was not designed to show off something beautiful to sponsors or to draw attention to itself by winning any architectural awards.

Instead, there are practical reasons behind it – it will make Brackley a place where top talent wants to work.

“You must not be carried away by the aesthetics of the campus,” he said. “When that becomes the main priority, you need to focus on what’s best for the people.

“It’s also a struggle of retention and recruitment; and being an attractive employer. So it shows our commitment that everything we do is for all of our employees. We want it to be best-in-class technology park.”

Aerial view of Mercedes factory

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

Wolff felt it was also important to offer something comparable to the rest of the industry, as cost caps changed the nature of employment in F1.

In the past, F1 proved so attractive to the best talent because wages were so high compared to other industries, but that’s no longer the case.

With wages below the cost cap, teams must balance making wages very attractive with the need to ensure that as much as possible is spent each year on improving the car.

Signing the best talent with a blank check is no longer possible, so teams must find other ways to encourage top talent to come on board — which can sometimes mean winning them over from other industries.

“We need to attract and retain the best talent,” Wolf said. “We’ve seen cost caps sometimes limit our ability to pay the same people as other industries.

“In some areas we are clearly no longer competitive in terms of cost cap. That is something we need to address going forward; how important it is to have the best talent here.

“Formula 1 has always been a coveted environment, not just to work in F1 itself, but to be able to earn more than any other engineering profession in the UK.”

Toto Wolff, Mercedes-AMG Team Principal and CEO

Photography: Steven Tee / motorsport pictures

The team’s investment in staff is evident after the news that Mercedes is giving staff wage increases based on inflation (currently around 10%).

It’s obvious why Mercedes can’t just sit back and try to make their factory the best it can be.

“The learning comes from; how do we work today?” Wolfe added.

“How do we create an engaging workplace that provides you with the most inspiring, creative environment possible? How do we provide spaces that encourage you to work less from home and more from here?

“You could argue that gyms don’t make cars go faster. But if gyms make people happier and enjoy where they work, then cars will go faster.”

Aerial view of Mercedes factory

Photo: Mercedes-AMG