The German car manufacturer already had to pay a big fee for this year under the revamped system, after scoring a total of 701 points during the 2014 season.

But not only have the fees gone up slightly - Mercedes must pay $6,194 per point scored, on top of a base entry fee of $516,128 – it has also scored two more points than last season.

It means the entry fee is a record $4,870,510 – which Wolff admits has been painful to pay.

"Expensive," Wolff told Motorsport.com about the scale of its entry fee. "It is always sad signing it off. It was a system being set up a couple of years ago now.

"It leads to a situation where if you score a lot of points the entry fee for next year is huge.

"Nevertheless we are here for sporting success and scoring that many points means we had a really good season. Therefore maybe there is a bitter-sweet feeling in signing it off."

Points record

Mercedes managed to score more points than in 2014 despite the Abu Dhabi finale not having double points this time around.

Wolff says he is not too interested in records, though, as long as Mercedes keeps on winning titles.

"There are many metrics that we monitor, and which are important to us," he added. "The maximum number of points in not the most obvious one – it is winning the championship and winning many races and being on pole.

"There is sporting reliability, mechanical reliability, and overall continuing to develop your team – or the team developing itself.

"For me personally the number of points, the highest ever points scoring, is just a figure in a book. It is of no great interest."

F1 team entry fees for 2016:

Team Points scored Entry fee Mercedes 703 $4,870,510 Ferrari 428 $2,725,036 Williams 257 $1,842,505 Red Bull 187 $1,481,235 Force India 136 $1,218,024 Lotus/Renault 78 $918,686 Toro Rosso 67 $861,915 Sauber 36 $701,924 McLaren 27 $655,475 Manor 0 $516,128

Interview by Jonathan Noble