Mercedes technical director James Allison spoke on Sky Sports about the team’s objectives for next year, but also about the lessons that needed to be learned last season.
James Ellison: “The challenge is to analyze everything and understand what position we really are in, rather than guessing what we could probably hope for. The story of last season is the story of how the team tried to get the best possible results given where we started the year.
To be honest, second place in the Constructors’ Championship is really the most you could expect. Because we have been able to occupy it, we all have reason to feel deep satisfaction. That was our goal, but I hope that by going there we were able to learn all the lessons that needed to be learned to deliver even more impressive results in 2024.
Personally, I don’t look at everything that happens in the same way as outside observers, who thought that the unusually shaped side pontoons that our car had at the beginning of this year were an element that defined the concept of the chassis.
We had to completely redesign the car, from the nose to the rear wing, because the W14 was not competitive. The side pontoons were the most striking element of the design, but cannot absolutely be considered a determining factor. The whole design wasn’t quite right and we had to figure it out and take action.
This work took longer than we would have liked, although those side pontoons can perhaps be seen as a kind of symbol of the situation where we did not know how to act to reach a higher level. But they weren’t the main feature that predetermined how the season would go for us.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
