James Allison working on a different concept from the RB19 for the Mercedes W14
Second in the manufacturer's standings, with more than half as many points as champions Red Bull, Mercedes wants to come back stronger in 2024. While the RB19's aerodynamic concept seems to be the model to follow, James Allison refuses to talk about "copying".
Will Red Bull’s overwhelming dominance push teams to reconsider their concept? In 2022, with the introduction of the new F1 cars, Mercedes created a car without sidepods. The W13 won last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix with George Russell. But this season, the German team has modified its concept and introduced sidepods.
Mercedes managed to secure second place in the constructor’s championship, three points ahead of Ferrari, but with more than twice as less points as Red Bull. The team achieved eight podium finishes, six with Hamilton and two thanks to Russell, but it did not secure any victories for the first time since 2011.
« The Astons tried to copy the car and it wasn’t the same thing »
During the season, Mercedes recalled James Allison to the position of Technical Director to replace Mike Elliot. The native of Louth, England is tasked with restoring performance to next year’s car. While the Red Bull concept may seem to be the one that works best, Allison refutes the idea of simply copying the RB19.
« These are philosophical conversations, but in the mindset of a designer, or a Formula 1 performance specialist, the concept actually has nothing to do with the car. It’s a process by which you decide what is good and what is bad. It’s your methodology for sorting through all the many things you could put on the car and finding only those that, in your opinion, will truly add lap time. It’s a method,” declares James Allison.
« So, when you talk to us about concepts, we understand that you think our wind tunnel weighting system was not good and we have changed that. Or our way of measuring CFD was wrong and we have added that we have changed the concept of it. So, of course, the last two years have forced us to adjust our approach and methodology, our concept if you will, and therefore, the material that comes out on the other side of that will necessarily be different material because it is defined by different decisions and different weights of what is important and what is not, explains the technical director of Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton also claims that the 2024 Mercedes will not be a copy of the Red Bull, citing the example of Aston Martin.
« Look at Aston, they tried to copy a car and it wasn’t the same thing. It’s not as easy as that, you have to try to take the right parts and through trial and error, try to add other pieces. But you can imagine they are also nervous about making too big of a change and it not being the right one. We have to be consistent from week to week and we have higher goals than ever because we have a huge gap to catch up. That’s what makes things very delicate », says the seven-time world champion.
