Mercedes chief James Allison has revealed his team’s upgrade strategy for after the summer break. The technical director of the Silver Arrows sees that currently every team is making ‘half a second of progress every two months’. Because Mercedes started the development of the W17 a little later, Ferrari and McLaren were able to break the dominance of the German team just before the summer break. However, Mercedes hopes to restore the ‘status quo’ with the next upgrade: “Hopefully this upgrade brings back the good form we had at the start of the season,” said Allison.
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Mercedes is currently leading both the drivers’ championship – with Andrea Kimi Antonelli – and the constructors’ championship. The Silver Arrows could not wish for a better starting position after the summer break. Yet the German team remains cautious, after Ferrari and McLaren ended Mercedes’ dominant winning streak earlier this year.
Mercedes’ technical director, James Allison, acknowledges that his team has been less aggressive with upgrades than the competition. “In terms of aerodynamics, the rate of improvement per week in the wind tunnel – the amount of time we gain per lap, that is the rate of improvement – is about six to seven times greater than last year,” Allison explained to various media. “That’s about half a second every two months, something like that, so that’s really a huge steep increase.”
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According to Allison, Mercedes is not the only team with this ‘rate of improvement’. “If we look at lap times, it seems that everyone is in the same boat as us. Everyone is making about half a second of progress every two months,” he said. “And so being half a step behind in the development cycle means you can fall behind by half a second.”
‘Restoring the status quo’
Because the W17 proved to be a strong car at the start of the season, Mercedes decided to postpone the development of the car slightly. This resulted in the Silver Arrows currently being ‘one or two races’ behind the upgrades of their rivals. However, Mercedes has a plan for after the summer break. “Our strategy is simply to maintain a lead and ensure that the next upgrade we bring restores the status quo. That way we want to bring back the good form we had at the start of the season,” said Allison. “We just have to endure exciting moments when other teams come with all their fancy new gadgets.”
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