James Allison on how Mercedes plans to ‘bully the W15 to the front’

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Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says the team plans to “keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the others cannot keep up with”.

In Mercedes’ Canadian Grand Prix debrief video, Technical Director James Allison said the team’s P3 and P4 result brings optimism for the future.

“There is an undercurrent of great happiness, but also a little bit of: ‘Oh, you know, that could have been a win,’” the Briton said.

“And you cannot put that out of your mind, however hard you try. But the main feeling is just a delight that this was another step forward for the car.

“The first weekend where we could claim to be nicely competitive and maybe a bellwether for better things to come.”

Allison also confirmed that Mercedes’ upgraded front wing performed as predicted by the team’s simulator.


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“I would say yes. We had got an idea of how it would behave, because we had run it the previous race in Monaco with just George on that occasion. We had two of them in Montreal, and we expected it to perform well.

“We expected it to deliver a bit more in Canada than it did in Monaco, because the Canada circuit, although unusual, is more of a normal circuit than Monaco was.

“It delivered more performance, it made the car feel easy to drive, well-balanced, and made the car the driver’s friend rather than the thing they had been fighting, which has been what has been problematic in the opening part of the season for us.”

However, despite Mercedes’ progress, Allison warned that the team will probably not be as competitive at the next race in Spain.

“The changes we have made are making this car a better car. And that will be true at every circuit we go to.

“The characteristics of Montreal make it look a little quicker than we have a natural right to command at the coming races.



“In Barcelona, I think it more likely that we will be competitive, but not right at the front. Because the next tracks are a little bit of a sterner test of a car. Hot asphalt, wider cornering speeds.”

As for the team’s development plans, Allison explained:

“However, I also know what we have got coming. I also know what we are planning to further improve the car.

“Our challenge is just to keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the others cannot keep up with.

“In doing that, just bullying our car to the front by virtue of the effort made by everybody here over the coming weeks and months to get the car so that it can have its Montreal weekend or better at any track that we face in the future,” he concluded.

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