Mercedes’ technical director, James Allison, has acknowledged the lack of satisfaction derived from a race executed competently but without the desired underlying pace, as was evident in China.
Despite George Russell securing a sixth-place finish and Lewis Hamilton clawing his way into the points after a challenging Q1 exit, followed by a commendable second-place finish in the Sprint, the stark pace deficit to Ferrari and Red Bull remains glaringly apparent.
Allison candidly outlined plans for imminent upgrades to the W15 to narrow the gap to the leading contenders and rectify what he described as an “underlying balance” issue plaguing the team.
He noted the struggles encountered by the W15 on a circuit notorious for its demanding front tire conditions at the Shanghai International Circuit. This, in turn, amplified the challenge of digesting the race outcome, despite both drivers delivering commendable performances.
Reflecting on the team’s performance in the post-China debrief, Allison remarked, “It’s obviously a pleasure to talk about things when you’ve had a great race and it’s lovely to the pleasure of seeing your car do well.”
However, the context of the race in China underscored the need for improvements to not only enhance performance but also to address technical challenges hindering the team’s competitiveness.
“It’s somewhat less pleasurable to do the same when things are not as enjoyable when the car is not as good but I think one of the things I’m proud of this team for is that we have consistently come out and talked about how things have gone.
“Honestly, whether good or bad, never tried to dissemble in any way and it was, you know, if you stand back at some level or another it was a competently executed race.
“Lewis started in a very lowly grid position, managed to get in the points, did a lot of good overtaking to bring that about and George drove a capable race without error, and finishing sixth was creditable with the car as it was, but the Chinese track is famous for being a front limited circuit.
“So [it’s] one where when you ask the car to go around a corner it will generally be the front tyres that go “no thank you, I don’t want to turn”, and we’ve had something of a front limited car all year, especially in the lower speed corners and that was really amped up to 11 this weekend.
“Once you’ve got front tyres that don’t want to go around the corner, that means the drivers have to wait for an eon to get on the power on the exit of the corner, you hemorrhage lap time there.
“To actually make the car go around the corner, they have to boot it around the corner with the throttle to loosen up the rear end somewhat and that kills the rear tyres so you end up overheating on the rear as a result of being front limited.
“It’s no pleasure at all to be taken from a weekend which even though competently executed and well driven by both guys, no pleasure at all when the hardware itself is not where it needs to be or should be.
“That’s of course the challenge that we face in the coming races is to try and move both the setup of the car and also the pieces that we bring to the car so that that’s improved.
“We’ve got upgrade packages coming to the car but also components that we hope will rectify the underlying balance that is causing us difficulty.
“Much as it’s painful to talk in this way after a weekend like this, I just have to remember that there’ll be races in the future when we’ve executed those things, when we’re back more on the front foot and when we’re progressing where the pleasure of talking about it will be massive and that day can’t come soon enough.”
