Ex-F1 Driver Reveals James Allison Was Once Absolutely Downcast About the Mercedes W15

Mercedes came into 2024 after getting rid of their zero side pod concept midway through 2023. James Allison was back in the Silver Arrows’ technical team as their leader. Unfortunately, despite his return, the results were not what Mercedes expected at the start of this season. Although Mercedes now has two consecutive wins at the Austrian and British GPs, former F1 driver Alex Wurz revealed that Allison was once utterly despondent about the W15’s prospects. 

“I remember seeing James Allison in the previous season testing in Bahrain and I walked next to him,” said Wurz on the F1 Nation podcast. “His shoulders were almost dragging on the floor. He was disappointed because he realized that the car didn’t deliver“.

It’s time to appreciate James Allison for his pivotal role in steering Mercedes back to race-winning form since taking over from Mike Elliott. Through challenging times, he has played a crucial part in revitalizing Mercedes’ competitive edge.

While it’s clear that success in… pic.twitter.com/K0WjzklP3t

— This is Formula 1 (@ThisIsFormu1a1) July 7, 2024

Wurz is close to Allison as the Mercedes Technical Director was at Benetton during the former F1 driver’s early days. Explaining the reason behind Allison’s disappointment, Wurz added, “In percentage, they were the furthest away at the beginning of the last three seasons. So almost the worst start of the season.”

Despite their initial setback, Mercedes brought a new floor and front wing at the Monaco and Canadian GP this year that seemed to have changed their fortunes. Allison suggested that when the team found the issue, it was a “how could we have been so dumb’ moment” for them.

The car is no longer on the knife’s edge and has a wider working window as Mercedes are now in contention with Red Bull and McLaren for race wins. Therefore, it now looks like a three-horse race to the end with Ferrari falling off the development cliff. Allison then also shed light on Mercedes’ aggressive approach for the remainder of the season.

What are Mercedes’ plans for the remainder of the 2024 season?

With the new regulations out for the next generation of cars, the teams will focus most of their next year’s resources on them. As a result, the 2025 cars will more or less be an evolution of the 2024 cars.

Hence, any advantages in performance made this year will carry forward to the next season. Mercedes, having recently discovered more pace, has promised to outperform its competitors with an aggressive upgrade strategy.

According to Formu1a.uno, Allison said, “Our challenge is just to keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the others cannot keep up with.” Toto Wolff further reinforced this idea by suggesting that Mercedes will bring upgrades at Budapest and Spa before the mid-season break. 

With McLaren and Red Bull also opting for an aggressive upgrade strategy, it’s going to be a race of who brings the most effective upgrades in a timely manner. Therefore, at this point, it’s still all to play for all three teams.