Mercedes Built Car That Was Uncompetitive 'From Tip Of Nose To Tail' Says Technical Director

Friday, 29 December 2023 at 05:00

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Mercedes's technical director, James Allison, recently addressed why their whole car has to be changed for the team to be able to compete for the title in 2023.

James Allison returned to his previous position as the chief technical director at the Mercedes F1 team in order to bring Silver Arrows back to the top of the podium.

Over the last two seasons, the German team fell far behind the dominant Red Bull Racing team and managed to win only one race.

The main problem that everybody picked up on was the difference in side pod design between Mercedes and other teams, but Allison recently explained to Sky F1 it is more complicated than that.

"I don’t see the world as you see it – who looks at the side and decide it’s a concept with our car. We certainly took a path that, from the tip of the nose to the tail, was not competitive. What caught the eye obviously were the sides, but it was certainly not a decisive factor."

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The technical director suggested the whole concept of the Mercedes car was wrong, which also hints that he now knows a better path to take. He added:

"The concept was wrong from start to finish, and the sidepods are perhaps the emblem of a team that took too long to understand which side they were on. But they are absolutely not the element that sealed our destiny."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently shared the team is working on a car that will be completely different from the 2023 model - W14.

Wolff also added he did not want to set high expectations, but the results from the simulations looked positive for the German F1 team.

The last time that Mercedes believed they had a strong car was at the beginning of the 2022 season, and it turned out to be far from reality. Do you believe Silver Arrows can recover in 2024?