After missing its performance targets for the start of the 2023 F1 season and falling further behind to Red Bull, Mercedes made the drastic decision to change its W14 car's layout.
A new floor and sidepod concept, as well as a suspension re-design, are being readied in time for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola later this month.
Under F1's restrictive budget cap, set at a base limit of $135m excluding allowances for additional races beyond 21, sprint weekends as well as inflation adjustments, such wholesale changes have been challenging to make.
The Brackley squad can no longer throw infinite resources at a project to turn the tide during a disappointing season.
That exacting process also comes with complex cost analysis and administration that team principal Wolff has called a "painful process".
"The cost cap gives so many constraints," he said.
"In the past, we wouldn't even know what a front suspension costs and today we need to take the purchase price of the aluminium and then factor in how much the machining of it costs, how much do you need to write off from the aluminium that you don't need, price out every bolt that goes into the suspension, the carbon that you bought as the raw material then cut it and put it on...
"What is the energy cost of the composite room, the overhead that goes into it, and at the end comes out the product.
"This is super complex and it's gone so far that we have cost analysts, engineers, that need to decide whether buying that kilogram of aluminium is worth the performance gain on the other side.
Source: Autosport