The Brackley-based team enjoyed a Canadian Grand Prix in which they were finally able to take a step forward, with George Russell taking pole position against all odds before finishing third in the race, one position ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton .
Mercedes’ improvement was aided by the recently repaved track surface at Gillves-Villeneuve, as this allowed the team to adjust the car on “soft” asphalt, a common problem at several tracks in the last two seasons and half.
Although they have taken measures to expand the operating window of the monopalzaJames Allison has anticipated that in the future there will more updates to add performance to the car.
“The changes we have introduced are making this car a better car and that will be the case in all the circuits we go to from now on,” he explained.
“The characteristics of Montreal make it seem a little faster than it could be in the next races. In Barcelona, I think it is more likely that we will be competitive, but not in such an advanced position, because the next circuits are a test a a little harder for a car. Hot asphalt, more speed in the corners and so on.
“However, I also know what awaits us. I also know what we are planning to continue improving the car. Our challenge is to maintain those improvements at a pace that others cannot keep up with and, in doing so, make our car the most quickly due to the effort made by everyone”.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
One of the main problems with each of the three concepts developed by Mercedes so far since the current regulations began in 2022 has been that they have always had a very narrow work window. But that’s something James Allison believes is starting to be resolved.
“I think we have expanded it substantially,” he insisted.
“There are more things we still have to do, and we will know for sure when we go to the next circuit, which is Barcelona, because it has different cornering conditions.”
“It’s also a much hotter circuit, so it will be a very tough test for the car.”
An important component in the improvement was the new front spoiler of the W15which is a more conventional design compared to the previous specifications, and when asked if it worked as expected, Allison said, “I would say yes.”
“We had an idea of how it would perform, because we had used it the previous race in Monaco with only George on that occasion. In Montreal we had two and we expected it to work well.”
“We expected it to perform a little better in Canada than in Monaco, because the Canadian circuit, although still unusual, is more like a normal circuit than Monte Carlo.”
“It gave us more performance, it made the car feel easy to drive, well balanced, and it made the car become the driver’s friend instead of the thing they had been suffering with,” concluded the technical director of Mercedes in Formula 1.
