F1 News: Mercedes Director On Red Bull Performance - "We Understand What They're Doing"

James Allison indicates that there is still significant potential for performance improvement, despite the anticipation of most F1 cars looking similar this year.

Mercedes technical director James Allison suggests that despite Formula 1's third year into the ground effect era, there remains plenty of untapped performance potential in ground effect cars. But with most teams following the lines of Red Bull, F1 cars of different teams are expected to look strikingly similar this season.

Courtesy of Red Bull's dominance in the current era, most teams are expected to develop their cars over the winter break by keeping the 2023 RB19 as an inspiration. After all, only the Milton Keynes outfit got all the answers right since 2022.

Mercedes Press Image

Despite the Red Bull route, Allison claims that there's a lot more that can be done to the design to make the cars faster. Consequently, it all boils down to the team's designer to generate innovative concepts and designs that have the potential to improve performance. Speaking to the media, he said:

"I think most people will be iterating down a similar sort of avenue [this season].

"But that doesn't mean that there isn't room for innovation at all.

"These cars, and it is no secret, run super-near the ground and that's where they get their best performance.

"But there is also the ground there, so it is just trying to figure out how you can reliably, precisely and in an informed way, place the car at a point above the ground that you know will be survivable from a skid legality point of view, but will also give you every bit of downforce that the car is capable of offering.

"There is plenty of action there still!"

Alpine technical director Matt Harman agreed that while other fast cars on the grid can be a source of inspiration, only a unique homegrown approach could turn things around. Speaking of Red Bull's RB19, he added:

"We think we understand what they're doing. You can't click your fingers and just imagine it overnight. We understand our direction. But I think we've also understood some of the other cars on the grid as well. 

"There are some other great cars there as well that have got some really interesting developments. And it's about trying to understand what you're doing, what they're doing.

"In the end, if we just follow those people, we will never be in front of them. I think it's a real mantra for us that we need to be inspired by these people, but we need to follow our own way."

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