F1 journalist Peter Windsor has made a tall claim on Mercedes’ 2024 prospects. The 71-year-old believes the Silver Arrows are back on track with their car’s development and might give Red Bull a run for their money. A big reason behind his assessment lies in Mercedes finally getting its house in order.
In a recent live chat on his YouTube channel, Windsor said, “You can imagine that after two years of messing around, Mercedes has got its affairs in order. All I can say is: yes. I think Mercedes will join us at the front.”
The team has indeed faced some chaotic times in the recent past. Last year, James Allison was a part of the reshuffle of the team that failed to make an impact. The British engineer, however, is back to his Technical Director designation and has given some positive feedback on the W15’s development.
We are delighted to confirm that James Allison has signed a long-term contract extension to remain as Technical Director
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) January 18, 2024
Windsor believes Allison will play a major role if Mercedes were to make a comeback to the front. The journalist went to the extent of dubbing Red Bull to be at a disadvantage by not having a man like Allison in their team.
He made a similar assessment for Mercedes as well. Given Adrian Newey’s exploits of late, Windsor feels the Brackley team is at a disadvantage by not having a mastermind like him.
James Allison vs Adrian Newey – the ultimate F1 showdown
Red Bull has ruled the F1 grid for 2 years with a kind of dominance that the sport has not witnessed thus far. The 2023 season was the perfect continuation of where the team ended in 2022.
They registered a record 21 race wins from the 22 available opportunities. In the process, they also breached McLaren’s 1988 record of the highest win rate. The brains responsible for delivering the car that achieved it all was Adrian Newey.
While the number of records broken in this period is surprising, Red Bull hopping back on the success train isn’t. That is because of Newey’s proven track record with the ground-effect regulations.
He is one of the remaining few engineers from F1’s original ground-effect era. On top of that, his academic thesis on the phenomenon is a respected work in the field.
“He did his thesis on ground effect floors” – Lewis Hamilton on Adrian Newey’s unsurprising understanding of this year’s regs (all said in good spirit while complimenting his work). #F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/VDEnTW4Hty
— Simon Dau (@there_is_no_if) September 1, 2022
James Allison, on the other hand, is no stranger to success himself. The man was in the middle of the purple patch enjoyed by Mercedes. He helped the Silver Arrows win five consecutive championships from 2017 to 2021. In four of those seasons, he also helped Lewis Hamilton to win the title.
However, the team are now on a downwards trajectory as 2023 was the first season in their history that they failed to win a race. Despite their recent struggles, they are optimistic about their chances going into 2024. Hamilton has provided a positive review about the W15 after checking the car in the wind tunnel.
