Over the last two rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 season (in Canada and Spain), Mercedes is the team which scored the most points: 55, a small unit more than Red Bull. We also count, excuse me, a pole position from George Russell stolen from under the nose of Max Verstappen in Montreal. This revival of form is, according to James Allison, largely due to the understanding of the W15, but have Mercedes returned to the top for good this time?
The technical director of the Flèches d’Argent spoke in the podcast Beyond the Grid, on the team’s progress over the last few weeks. The W15, so difficult to drive for George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, seems to have finally been understood…
“At the start of the year we could get a car that was decent in the slow corners and decent in the fast corners, admits the British engineer. But we couldn’t improve it in both at the same time. What has changed over the last few races is that we have modified the car so that it has a reasonable balance between high and low speeds and between corners. This means the rider can trust it from braking at the start of the turn, all the way through the apex point and all the way out of the turn.
We didn’t say ‘Eureka!’. It came from suddenly understanding something that no one had understood before. Our progress came from that moment of realization when we saw something for the first time. The front wing is one of the biggest things about it, but it’s about understanding that the car can go from high to low speed in the right way.”
Team work
Faced with their numerous failures since the arrival of the new regulations in 2022, Mercedes has been able to recover to return to the forefront. The employees of Brackley have, without a doubt, the eternal gratitude of James Allison who has continued to praise them over the last few months.
« In 2017, I joined a team that knew full well that complacency would kill us, he adds. It is to the team’s credit to have maintained such a course for eight seasons. I hope I have been helpful in engaging everyone who runs the plant. We may have had many false starts, but it’s worth working for and it will make a difference. The reactions have been excellent within the team. Seeing their hard work pay off in the final races was one of the best moments. »
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