Last Updated on December 6 2023, 10:42 am

Since the fateful day in Abu Dhabi when the all conquering juggernaut of an F1 team failed to deliver Lewis Hamilton his record eight world title, Mercedes AMG F1 have been a shadow of their former selves.

Yet coming second to Red Bull this season could lead the casual overseer to believe the Brackley based team are on the mend. But a slightly deeper dive into the results from the past two seasons indicates Ferrari were better both years claiming five Grand Prix wins while Mercedes’ George Russell claimed their single win in that period back in Brazil 2022.

 

 

 

Mercedes flattered to deceive in 2023

Further, had McLaren started the 2022 season the way they finished, their performance over the last 16 races was enough to have seen them finish ahead of Mercedes in the final standings.

Lewis Hamilton has repeatedly gone public about how the team failed to “listen” to him and even as 2023 came to a close, Ferrari had by far the better car.

Now James Allison – reinstated as Mercedes’ technical director – reveals he is trying to fix what is to all effects a ‘broken’ Mercedes team. This will not be an easy task given the loss of ‘top’ personnel Mercedes have suffered and even Allison admits he will have little direct impact on the technical changes required to ensure Mercedes to towards the performance of Red Bull.

The gap to Red Bull was barely improved last time out in Abu Dhabi than when the teams revealed their new ground effect style cars in February 2022.

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Allison reveals his input ‘not technical’

Speaking to the Performance People podcast, James Allison explains, “Actually the role I can play is much less technical and much more human than people might guess.

“The team is stuffed full of very strong engineers and very high-level technical competence. And so I don’t need to teach anything to anyone and in most cases couldn’t even if I wished to.”

Allison admits his input will not be one of a technical nature but more of a co-ordinating leader, which begs the question ‘what has Toto Wolff been doing for the past three years?’

“When a team has been on a very high plateau for quite a large number of years, for quite a long period of time, and then takes a dip, for whatever reason, it’s very disorientating, it’s very unpleasant to suddenly feel that what you’ve previously felt about yourselves as a group has been [shaken], the foundations of that have been loosened by the reality of the stopwatch and being beaten by another team,” adds Allison.

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“Poor car…. loud calls” creates pressure

This creates a short term pressure “on a company that’s been used to thinking further ahead,” Allison continues. Further he explains the “loud calls” stating that “the car is poor” increases that pressure which then “scatter on the four or five, six winds” the various disciplines within the team.

In fact the loudest criticism of the Mercedes W12/13 cars have come from within their own ranks. Toto Wolff after just one practice qualifying session this year declared the car not fit for purpose.

“I don’t think this package is going to be competitive eventually,” Wolff declared on Saturday in Bahrain. “We gave it our best shot all over the winter, and now we just need to all regroup and sit down with the engineers.”

This must have been disheartening for the group of people who had spent probably six months designing the car and looking how to improve its performance.

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Indictment on Mercedes leadership

Lewis Hamilton has repeatedly in public criticised the Mercedes car and the engineers who failed to “listen to him.”

This short term pressure Allison claims results in “those groups can stop talking to one another because they’re all head down, trying to fix what they see as their part in making the world a better place.”

“And probably the most destructive pattern that we as a group got into over that difficult period from when our crown first slipped, was that we fragmented more than we should have done.”

This is a shocking indictment on the leadership within Mercedes over there past two seasons and it appears Allison is setting himself up as the one who is now there to fix the problem.

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Hamilton changes tac

James continues that his role since returning as technical director has been to “dampen down the shout” and “focus on coordinating our work because if we do that, the world will improve and the call from the car will quieten on its own.

“That’s mostly what I’ve been up to since coming back to the technical director role. That’s got nothing to do with nuts, bolts, springs, dampers, wings, floors. It’s just human stuff. But nevertheless, that human stuff becomes more and more important the further you are up the food chain and the more fortunate you are with the role that you’re given in the company.”

Lewis Hamilton noticeably changed tac after Allison’s arrival in his post race parade lap messages he was seeing to the team. The “work harder” chides he had been issuing preciously were softened significantly as he repeatedly tanked those back in the factory for all their hard work to date.

Maybe it was a coincidence – but then again maybe this was an example of Allison and his efforts to “dampen down the shout.”

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Departments fragmented

James Allison identifies each of the departments he believes became fragmented: Trackside performance, vehicle dynamics, the drawing office and aerodynamics – and claims he has now brought them back together.

“The answers… are only possible if they spend a bit of time talking to one another. And the fact they then spend the time talking to one another automatically means they’ll coalesce around a jointly agreed programme of activity to get those answers,” surmises Allison.

“It doesn’t take long before people fall back into that habit of leaning on each other rather than working individually because actually, it’s way more fun that way.

“So it’s not [me] coming in and saying, ‘Well, we need to get the car three millimetres lower and spring needs to go to that’, we know how to do that because that requires people who are in the depth of the detail, who are resources that are under the control of that layer of more senior people that I just described.

“Those people down in the engine room of the team, they need to be given the confidence by their own leaders to work on areas that are maybe going to help and do so in a manner which is linked up across the company.”

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Hamilton not full of confidence for 2024

Allison has had too little time to fully fix the ‘broken’ Mercedes and his efforts may not be enough before the start of the 2024 season.

Lewis Hamilton did not excuse confidence when asked about how he felt the new car design was going when he was asked in Abu Dhabi after finishing a disappointing P9.

“At this moment, I don’t really know. For Red Bull to win by 17 seconds and they haven’t developed their car since August is definitely a concern.”

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If Mercedes 2024 car uncompetitive…?

“We have learned a lot about the car and it’s just down to the team now. They know what they need to do. Whether or not we will get there, we will see.”

Hamilton later posted a more upbeat message to his team on social media. Maybe James Allison had tapped him on the shoulder reminding him of the new Mercedes way of doing things.

The problem Allison faces is Lewis Hamilton is a heart on his sleeve kind of guy and the rebuilding in Mercedes continue into next year. But it will be difficult to keep Hamilton from making his usual outbursts should the car is fourth quickest next time out in Bahrain. And Lewis start the Grand Prix in P8.

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