F1 News: Mercedes Technical Director Aims For 2024 Championship With "Ambitious" W15
Aiming for the championship, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison has set high hopes for the W15 F1 car, given the "ambitious program" which has helped the outfit make "quite a lot of progress with next year’s car."
Almost every team member of the Mercedes team will be counting on the 2024 contender after a winless 2023 season that saw the outfit ditch its zero-pod car concept after a disastrous start to the year.
Despite introducing a revamped chassis in Monaco, the team was able to make little progress. Eventually, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's prowess helped the team stay afloat in second place in the Constructors' Championship, a position that almost went to Ferrari in the Abu Dhabi grand finale.
Allison agrees that the team peaked after winning a record eight Constructors’ titles starting from the beginning of the V6 hybrid era in 2014. The glory days also helped Hamilton win seven titles and become one of the most successful drivers in the history of the sport.
Despite going winless for two years and despite considering Red Bull's dominance in the ground effect era, Allison is counting on the W15 car for 2024. When asked if Mercedes will be back to its winning ways in 2024 or require more time to recapture their former glories, he explained on the Performance People podcast:
“‘I don’t know,’ is the answer to that.
“I hope that we have put in place enough of a program of work that we have put ourselves in with a shout to be back to [competitiveness].
“[When you say] ‘winning ways’, does that mean winning a race? Does that mean winning a Championship?
“In my head, it’s only ever about Championships. That’s what Formula 1 is: it’s a Constructors’ and a Drivers’ Championship.
“I hope that we have done enough to give ourselves a shout of being in a Championship fight in both Championships.
“If you look at the long march of F1 history, then the stats are against us. Teams do not bounce back from slipping from their previous peak in the length of time that we have set ourselves.
“But we have nevertheless set a pretty ambitious program. We have quite a lot of strength in depth here and we’ve made quite a lot of progress with next year’s car.
“Whether it proves sufficient or not, only time will tell, but that’s what I’m hoping for us and I know that all my colleagues and team-mates around me will be hoping for the same.”
