James Ellison: We deserved second place

Former Mercedes technical director James Ellison has returned to the team. The Mercedes press service did not make a separate statement about this, but published a video in which James summarized the Australian Grand Prix by answering questions from fans.

Q: How does the team rate the weekend in Australia?
James Allison: In general we are satisfied, because we have been able to take a step forward in working with the machine. In terms of speed, we’ve squeezed out almost everything we’re capable of right now. However, there is one disappointing factor: only one of our riders made it to the finish. George Russell failed to show what his car was capable of on race day, although he was fast all weekend.

We haven’t made drastic changes, but we’ve made some progress. The team reduced the gap to Red Bull to a minimum and was slightly ahead of Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Q: Why did you look better in Australia? Follow features?
James Allison: It is always difficult to answer such questions. Did we expect to be in this shape? In a broad sense, yes, because our form in Australia was not much different to the one we showed at the other two circuits of the season. We improved a little bit compared to Red Bull, but with the rest the gaps stayed about the same.

I think the main discovery of the Australian stage was that the Red Bull drivers were a bit out of shape in qualifying, which reduced the gaps. If we look at our race pace against Ferrari and Aston Martin, we see similar numbers throughout the year. Yes, in Australia we looked a little better, but this is a barely noticeable and unstable margin.

We expected to fight against Ferrari and Aston Martin, and we’re glad we got ahead of them. How much did our own form contribute to such results and how much did the characteristics of the track contribute? Time will tell. In the coming weeks we will perform on completely different tracks from each other, and we will understand whether the speed in Australia is related to the fact that we got more speed out of the car, or to the characteristics of the track.

Q: Why did you call George Russell into the pits for the first red flags when the safety car came out?
James Allison: Good question, because it happened pretty early – around the eighth round. When the safety car takes to the track so early, you will always doubt whether you can still earn back at the cost of a pit stop, or lose ground.

In Melbourne we decided to split the strategy between the drivers – to pit George and leave Lewis Hamilton on track. So the team just shared the risks. It looked like George and I had made the right decision as we were able to get a “free” pit stop thanks to the safety car, but a few seconds later everything turned upside down as the race was stopped by red flags.

The red flags came as a big surprise to us, because it seemed to us that the consequences of this type of incident could be eliminated in the yellow flag regime. But under the red flags anyone could make their pit stop, so George lost due to the fact that he pitted before the race was stopped.

Question: If George had not retired, what would his result have been?
James Allison: He lost several positions due to red flags instead of getting the advantage we hoped for. George was fast all weekend, he started confidently, showed a high pace in the race – everything worked out to a good result.

Q: How did the team react to second place Lewis? Is it possible to repeat such a result in Baku?
James Allison: The whole team is very happy with this result. As I said, it was very unpleasant for us to see George retire, but Lewis had a brilliant race, drove confidently and made no mistakes. Good start, great first lap, interesting fight in the first corners with Max Verstappen. After that he controlled the race in very difficult conditions, although in that situation it was very easy to overload the tires and provoke granulation.

Lewis delivered a fantastic result and we are pleased to have deserved second place, closing the gap to the leaders compared to previous races. Great job from the team who got the most out of the car over the weekend and continue to work hard to get more out of the W14 every step of the way – so far we can.

Will we be able to repeat this form in Baku? This question is very difficult to answer. The circuits in Melbourne and Baku are very different. In Melbourne the load on the front tires is higher, while in Baku it is on the rear tyres. We think we can perform well in Baku, but in reality we will only find out everything when we leave the track.

Question: What novelties does the team plan to prepare?
James Allison: We continue to work in the wind tunnel to get more downforce out of the car. Our engineers are planning to prepare mechanical upgrades of the car related to the suspension. We believe they will help to improve the car’s balance and make it more manageable, which will boost drivers’ confidence and allow them to attack at the limit.

We are working on the simulator and doing the standard preparation for the upcoming weekends. In Baku we are waiting for the first sprint of the season and it is very important to arrive in such stages with ready basic settings, because the changed format means we have to be ready for qualifying straight away. I hope we will work well and in a few weeks we will be in shape on the podium in Baku.