James Ellison: I didn’t understand what was going on at all

Mercedes technical director James Allison is willing to admit that the team’s poor performance in Brazil was an unpleasant surprise for them. Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, he explained the difficulties Lewis Hamilton and George Russell faced in Sao Paulo.

In the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Mercedes only managed to take four points: last Sunday, Hamilton finished 8th, while his teammate was forced to retire because the engine oil temperature in Russell’s car rose to critical levels.

Toto Wolff, the team leader, summed up the weekend figuratively: “Our car drove like it was on three wheels.”

Ellison also makes no secret that he is upset by these results: “Of course we were surprised. I simply emailed the Brackley base and said I had no idea what was going on. It would be an exaggeration to expect that we could repeat last year’s success, as we won the race in Brazil, but I assumed that we would at least be able to compete for the podium.

You could say we failed because of our own arrogance. But we couldn’t even imagine that the Brazilian weekend would be so difficult. But we can say that there is also a moment that is partly reassuring: all this simply means that we ourselves have done something wrong.

Now we have to analyze everything and let’s hope we can find a solution to the problem. This was because the rear tires overheated and the rubber degradation was very high. In addition, the drivers were very bothered by the car’s tendency to oversteer.”