While team boss Toto Wolff said after the defeat at the Styrian Grand Prix last weekend that the team’s development focus was entirely on the rules of 2022, this made it clear that this does not mean that the development of the current W12 has been completely stopped.
Technical Director James Allison has revealed that Mercedes still has upgrades in development for some time, and the engine department of the German car manufacturer is also looking into what optimizations can be made to the aggregate management to help there too.
Speaking to the F1 Nation Podcast, Allison said, “We have a reasonable number of things that will make our car faster in the races to come and we hope they prove sufficient.”
When asked how his remarks contradict Wolff’s comments that there are no further upgrades for the current car, Allison said, “I don’t think these two things contradict each other. And I don’t think Toto said exactly that.
“Toto points out that the rules for next year are a big and hairy business and require a great deal of our attention. So most of the focus of our factory has shifted to next year, power discovery for next year.
“But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things in the food chain from before this focus shift. And besides, it’s not all factory-made. And besides, we are only one of two factories, there is also the PU factory and there is a little more from PU.
“So there are still more aerodynamic changes to be made. A bit of the PU, we hope, on the delivery side, and a few things that aren’t quite as tidy as we’d like, that we still have the opportunity to correct this while this season is still very much alive and hot.”
Allison added that Mercedes’ challenge to get performance gains on its current car was made more difficult by the new ground rules for this year, which had reduced downforce.
“Since the aerodynamic rule changes to caring for the tires, it’s been hard as hell to find the rate of performance increase that we did before these rules,” he said. “So that shaped our life more tricky than we would have liked.”
James Allison, Technical Director, Mercedes AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Allison also revealed that the “crazy” setup that Andrew Shovlin, Head of Track Development, referred to in Styria, was related to a mechanical aspect aimed at improving the car’s performance on both a single lap and long journeys improve.
“It was probably just a bit of a sore expression on Shov’s side,” he said, saying it was “crazy”. “It’s a little different from how we normally drive a car mechanically. Aerodynamically it was very similar, and ride height very similar.
“But [it was] just change the roles from front to back. It was different from what we normally would, in order to find a better balance between single lap performance and long term performance.
“Whether or not we have this compromise exactly as we want it to add up to the list of unanswered questions that we can answer by returning to the same route for a second weekend in a row.”
He added, “We think it’s faster, but it’s not without compromise. So we will find out whether there is a better mousetrap. “
