James Ellison answers fan questions

Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes technical director James Ellison answered several questions from fans about the previous stage and plans for the next one.

Question: Have you noticed any signs that the technical innovations presented in Monaco have had a positive effect?
James Allison: Sure, Monaco is not the place where you want to try new things, and it’s better to do it on a more “normal” track. This was exactly what we had planned: the novelties would be presented in Imola, but unfortunately this race was cancelled. Instead, their debut took place in Monaco.

It hasn’t been easy and it’s too early to draw any conclusions about how a comprehensive car upgrade will affect the rest of the season. It is very difficult to judge it on a city circuit. We didn’t see any global changes in qualifying, but in the race the cars had a fairly stable pace. But now we wait for the next stage of the championship to evaluate the progress made on the stationary circuit of Barcelona.

However, both riders were generally positive about the behavior of the W14, both felt it brakes better, and judging by the data we’ve received from the aerodynamic sensors, there’s nothing to worry us so far. In general, everything seems to be in line with our expectations.

Q: Why did Lewis Hamilton start on Medium tires and George Russell on Hard tyres?
James Allison: Anyone who has followed Formula 1 for a long time knows that racing strategy can in many ways be compared to a game of poker. You try to make the decisions that give you the best chance of success, but that success is not guaranteed. You may have great cards in your hand, but if you’re unlucky, you still lose. But sometimes it’s the other way around: even with terribly bad cards you can succeed if luck is on your side.

But over the course of the season as a whole, you try to get the highest possible chances, because that comes at the expense of results. Given that Lewis and George started the race from different positions of the grid respectively, the cards in their hands were different. Since Lewis started not far from pole position, if all went well one could expect a lot of points in his case, so there was no point in offering him a high-risk tactical plan.

Under normal circumstances he should have shown a pretty good result, and if we used risky tactics, points could be lost. It should also be emphasized that he had relatively few opportunities to improve his position.

And George started from a more distant row, and he had little to lose, and with luck, when he started on hard rubber, he could even get ahead and show a good result. So we took all these factors into account, predicted the possible development of events in the early stages of the race, and thought it made sense for Lewis to stick to a more conservative tactic.

Starting on the Medium compound allowed many risk factors to be taken into account, while in George’s case one could bet on a more optimistic tactical plan. The tactics offered to our riders matched their starting positions.

Q: Why did George ask the team to switch positions with a partner during the race?
James Allison: That was mainly because George got a 5 second penalty, this happened just as it started to rain, and there was confusion on the track, because everyone switched to intermediate tyres. And George became a participant in a minor incident, for which he was fined, and then Charles Leclerc, driving behind him, became his direct rival.

For a few laps it looked like Leclerc could close the gap and the interval between the cars would be less than five seconds, meaning the team would lose some points. Therefore, George asked to switch positions with a partner, as this would allow Lewis to maintain a sufficient lead over Leclerc and reduce the Ferrari driver’s chances of getting close enough to George.

But this request from George was purely theoretical and I think when he turned to the team he understood that it would be extremely difficult to fulfill. In addition, the situation changed quickly and it was clear that George was driving at a good pace, so that he was at least able to create a sufficient lead over Leclerc.

Question: Can the teams get enough information when the opponent’s car is evacuated from the track with a crane and everyone sees what the bottom looks like?
James Allison: There is always a lot of interest, of course, and the photographers who work with the teams are always bustling about the track. They are located at the most strategically important points of the circle, where there is a high probability that the crane can lift the car, and when this happens, they begin to violently click the shutters of their cameras.

Then we get a lot of pictures of other teams’ cars, made in high resolution. Unfortunately, our car also went up in the air last weekend, and the rivals also got pictures of it. But I can confirm that we now have a good selection of images of the Red Bull RB19, and our aerodynamicists will study them in detail, which is always useful.

Let’s see if we can gather some information on some really interesting details.

Question: Did the rain of this intensity surprise the teams, or did the weather forecast predict all this?
James Allison: Yes and no. All teams knew that there was a good chance of rain, but it was not clear when it would come and how heavy it would be. All these questions remained, and when the rain finally started, everything happened very quickly. We expected him for another 10 or 15 minutes, but he gushed almost immediately.

But the hardest part was not that, but how the situation then developed, because for several laps one part of the track was very wet and the other remained completely dry. And the teams were actively discussing what was happening to their drivers – whether it was necessary to go to the pits to change tires.

Opinions were different and constantly changing: if the rider was on the wet part of the track, he was ready to turn straight into the pit lane, and when he was on the other part of it, he would shout on the radio: “No, the asphalt is too dry!” And the main question was whether we should wait for the situation to get worse or not to get worse?

I think we made the decision to switch to intermediate tyres, and chose a very good time to do so, as soon as it became clear that it was no longer possible to stay on track on slicks.

This allowed our riders to finish in higher positions thanks to the timely and well-executed decision to switch to Intermediate tyres.