"We have not disappeared from the picture," insists Andrew Shovlin, following Toto Wolff's upgrade claim.

The Austrian's claim that Mercedes doesn't have the money for upgrades, which led to some very odd headlines, and derision from Andrea Stella, was more about the fact that his team, wary of the budget cap, and having already spent a sizeable amount developing its car, was adopting a more careful approach to its upgrade programme than appears to be the case at Ferrari and McLaren.

Indeed, such has been the Maranello outfit's upgrade programme that Wolff has already suggested that it could be close to exceeding the cap.

With Kimi Antonelli and George Russell clearly eyeing the increasing threat from McLaren, trackside engineering director Shovlin is keen to set the record straight.

"We would be concerned if the performance deficit exceeded the gains we can see ready to come through the wind tunnel," he says in the latest Mercedes podcast. "That is not the case.

"We are reasonably confident that much of the current picture comes from the phasing of updates," he continues, "although Zandvoort also left us asking whether we extracted the maximum from the car.

"This close fight is broadly what we expected at this point of the season," he insists, "perhaps even slightly better.

"Our larger package is targeted for the block of flyaway races later in the year," he explains. "We are looking forward to it, but we are also enjoying the current challenge. George took pole for the Sprint, and we qualified second and third for the grand prix. We have not disappeared from the picture.

"Many of our rivals spent the early part of the year trying to catch up, so we expected them to introduce updates more frequently," he admits. "That does not necessarily mean they will have added more total performance by the end of the season; they may simply have staged the investment differently and at greater cost."

The Briton explains that the cap doesn't merely cover a team's current car but the initial development of its successor.

"Under the cost cap, the same annual budget must support the car currently racing, its in-season development and the car that follows. Towards the end of the year, we also begin manufacturing components for the next car.

"There is always a push and pull between those demands," he admits. "If we believed these championships depended on having an update at Zandvoort, we would probably have found a way to achieve it.

"We are in the enviable position of leading, so it is logical not to throw as many parts at the current car as competitors who are chasing. We must remain competitive this year while also thinking about the next championship. Being in front allows a little more long-term thinking.

"We have made calculated decisions about the most cost-efficient route to the end of the year. After every race, however, we reassess whether we are doing enough, bringing enough and whether anything can be pulled forward."

"It is the reality every team faces under the cost cap," adds deputy team principal Bradley Lord. "Formula 1 organisations must balance headcount and salary costs against the money available for hardware.

"They must consider how much of the current car was produced this year rather than last, how many spare parts to manufacture and how much stock to carry at the factory and with the race team. Every team is trying to find the optimum balance.

"We continue to find performance in the wind tunnel, but the challenge is deciding when to convert that virtual gain into real parts. With a floor, for example, do you manufacture a new one as soon as performance is found, or align the upgrade with the point at which a fresh floor is required simply to complete the season? Finding those efficiencies is the art within the science.

"A team in catch-up mode may make different choices from one that is leading. By the time we race in Mexico, Brazil and Las Vegas, it does not necessarily follow that another team will have introduced more total performance, it may simply have released it in smaller, more frequent steps."