© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison says “teams do not bounce back from slipping from their previous peak in the length of time we have set ourselves, but we have nevertheless set a pretty ambitious programme”.
After eight unprecedented years of success, in 2022 Mercedes was suddenly not able to fight at the top of the field.
This trend continued in 2023, and now the German team is working hard to try and get back in the fight for the championship in 2024.
The team’s Technical Director James Allison, however, says Formula 1 history does not provide a lot of reasons for optimism.
“If you look at the long march of F1 history, then the stats are against us,” the Briton told the Performance People podcast.
“Teams do not bounce back from slipping from their previous peak in the length of time we have set ourselves, but we have nevertheless set a pretty ambitious programme.
“We have quite a lot of strength in depth here and we’ve made quite a lot of progress with next year’s car.
“Whether it proves sufficient enough, only time will tell, but that’s what I’m hoping for us and I know that all my colleagues and team-mates around me will be hoping for the same.”
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Allison added that drops in performance can lead to fragmentation within the team.
“When a team has been on a very high plateau for quite a large number of years, for quite a long period of time, and then takes a dip, for whatever reason, it’s very disorientating.
“The foundations of that have been loosened by the reality of the stopwatch and being beaten by another team.
“It rouses people to action but the action can tend to be that all the disciplines in the company – the aerodynamics, the vehicle dynamics, the drawing office, all the specialisms that are necessary, that work together to create a good car – that each of them can sort of scatter on the four or five, six winds to their individual corners, to do what they can do or contribute in the way they think is best, driven by this very loud call that the car needs to improve.
“If you’re not careful, those groups can stop talking to one another because they’re all head down, trying to fix what they see as their part in making the world a better place.
“Probably the most destructive pattern that we as a group got into over that difficult period from when our crown first slipped, was that we fragmented more than we should have done. Not because anyone fell out with anyone, far from it.
“In fact the spirit in this place, considering the pressure it’s been under, has been incredibly resilient,” Allison concluded.
