Before the Canadian GP weekend began, we saw glimpses of fighting talk from James Allison. The Mercedes Technical Director echoed some of Toto Wolff’s confidence in the W15 and its potential for growth. He also touched upon what he perceives as an ineffective set of upgrades from Red Bull. Considering the performance shown last weekend, Allison’s analysis has largely been vindicated.
When Allison was re-appointed to the position of Technical Director at the start of 2024, he inherited a messy situation. The British engineer was tasked with undoing the team’s “zeropod” concept and creating a new philosophy to strive towards.
Over the last twelve months or so, there have been plenty of ups and downs. Because of this, as recently as last week, speculation about progress at Mercedes is usually taken with a heavy dose of scepticism.
Perhaps after the Canadian GP, this will hesitance change.
Speaking after an encouraging weekend for Mercedes, Allison explains what to expect from the W15 moving forward:
“The changes we have made are making this car a better car. And that will be true at every circuit we go to.
“The characteristics of Montreal make it look a little quicker than we have a natural right to command at the coming races.
“In Barcelona, I think it more likely that we will be competitive, but not right at the front. Because the next tracks are a little bit of a sterner test of a car.”
This is a prevalent theme in most of the latest W15 disucssion. Whilst Mercedes were in contention for victory, there was a combination of factors that played into their hands.
Because of this, James Allison is one of many figures at the Silver Arrows to exercise caution.
That said, the 56-year-old is confident about the path ahead. More upgrades are on the way, and for the first time since 2022, there is reason to believe they will work as expected.
Therefore, encouraging numbers from the wind tunnel are a legitimate reason to be excited at Mercedes:
“Hot asphalt, wider cornering speeds. However, I also know what we have got coming. I also know what we are planning to further improve the car.
“Our challenge is just to keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the
others cannot keep up with.
“In doing that, just bullying our car to the front by virtue of the effort made by everybody here over the coming weeks and months to get the car so that it can have its Montreal weekend or better at any track that we face in the future.”
