James Allison reveals Mercedes’ “real weapon” against its competition

© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.

Mercedes’ technical director James Allison talks about “the most important thing” for success in today’s Formula 1.

Allison says the “biggest advance” the team has had in the last two years is better management of Pirelli’s tyres.

“The most important thing today is to get the most out of your tyres, regardless of the season,” said the Brit.

“We are lucky that we have excellent engineers in our team, in our driving dynamics group. They bring this understanding and knowledge with them.

“The biggest advance that this team has made in the past two or three years has been to develop the car to better deal with the tyres.

“We always had a fast car, but it works better with the tyres today than it used to. Therefore, they no longer see this yo-yo effect from exceptionally good to weak races. We had no real slumps this year.

“The other teams are also working on it, but as of today, I would give our team the greatest chance of getting our car’s tyres into the operating window and staying there for the rest of the weekend.

“It has become a real weapon for us.”

The risk of tyre blistering and degradation was lowered when Pirelli reduced the thread of its tyres by 0.4mm in 2019. Still, Allison says Mercedes still has an edge over its competition when it comes to tyre management.

“The tyres are not that much different than last year,” he said.

“We used these tyres with a thinner tread in three races in 2018. They don’t blister so quickly, that’s a fact.

“I don’t know what the others have done or not. All I can say is that we are lucky enough to have many competent people on our team.

“It was important for us to understand the tyres, how the forces of the car act on them, so that aerodynamics and mechanics work well together,” concluded Allison.

Source: Auto Motor und Sport

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