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Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says the ‘once-great team now in decline’ media narrative is “a galvanising thing” for the team.
After eight years of dominance, in 2022 Mercedes was not able to adapt to new Formula 1 regulations as well as some other teams (mainly Red Bull and Ferrari), which led to two years of not being able to fight for race wins and championships.
During his appearance on the Performance Podcast, Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison explained how the team finds motivation in the ‘once-great team now in decline’ media narrative, that arose from their difficult situation.
“I think the sense that we’re all in this together, and that people have written our future for us – ‘the once-great team now in decline’ – all of the negative narrative that can come around with that, as long as, internally, we’re saying: ‘Let them say that…’” the Briton started.
“That’s their [the media’s] job, they’ve got to say something, but our job is to show them they’re wrong.
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“And imagine how good that’s going to feel, when they’ve all been looking sympathetically at us – or with faux sympathy in our direction – we’ll just suck that up and go: ‘Okay, right, we’re going to work on this and we’re going to come back and we’re going to show them.’
“That is definitely a galvanising thing, as long as it doesn’t spill over into a negative, victim complex, and it’s more just the cheerful application of the skill in this place to come out and surprise people. We’re not going to go quietly into the night.
“And, actually, this is a place full of extraordinary talent and people who have got absolutely everything they need – in their head, their character and the equipment we have here at the factory – to be resilient to this, and show that we can rebuild and produce a car that is deservedly at the front once more,” Allison concluded.