Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz had an awkward on-air moment with Mercedes’ chief engineer, James Allison at the Imola GP. Kravitz saw Allison take a raw carbon fiber nose cone along with him and asked him about it. On this, the Mercedes technical director joked that the cone contained “cocaine”, leaving Kravitz stunned.
The Sky Sports presenter was doing his post-race ‘Ted’s Notebook’ segment when this exchange happened. He asked Allison to let him have a look inside the nose cone. On this, Allison said,
“I don’t know what’s in there. it might be all our c***ine.”
Stunned at the answer, Kravitz replied, “James! Do not say… such a naughty man.” He joked later that he should not have walked into that conversation to avoid such an R-rated reference on the live broadcast.
— Tom Speight (@Tom_Speight98) May 20, 2024
The Mercedes’ technical director carrying the nose cone, approximately worth $126,000, was a novel sight. He stated that those are additional spare parts for the car that they carry ‘to and fro’ to all races.
As this nose cone was in raw form without any car livery paint, it seems like it was an extra spare, not intended to be used unless they ran out of car noses.
As for Mercedes‘ performance at the Imola GP, it wasn’t much to write home about. Lewis Hamilton finished P6 just a place ahead of George Russell in seventh. The W15 upgrades did not yield the intended results as the Silver Arrows will have to fine-tune their car in future to find more performance.
Mercedes don’t seem to have answers again in 2024
Mercedes’ struggles have become an enigma to understand in the third year of these ground effect regulations. On one end, they get some hope of minor step-ups that could lead to a major revival. However, it again turns out to be a false dawn and a step in the wrong direction.
The 2024 season can arguably be deemed as the worst season for the Brackley outfit since their return in 2010. This year, their rivals such as Ferrari and McLaren have progressed ahead massively, dropping Mercedes to P4 in the standings.
For now, they have a decent lead over Aston Martin in P5, who seem to have their own set of problems. However, Mercedes would want to find a step forward soon to avoid languishing further this season.
Meanwhile, the German team has aimed to understand their car’s handling characteristics and smoothen it for the drivers. Besides, the trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin has assured that they will be having a thread of several updates over the next three to four races.
Mercedes would hope that these upgrades lead them in the right direction and provide substantial gains. Or else, the 2025 car development would be another visit to the drawing board for the eight-time constructors champions.
