Mercedes technical director James Allison has shared the key change made to the Mercedes W15 which has led to the uptake in performance for the last three races.
The German manufacturer has struggled to match the performance of Red Bull and Ferrari since the start of the 2022 ruleset, with the Silver Arrows relegated to fourth-best team after being overtaken by engine customer McLaren.
It is a far cry from the title-winning juggernaut it used to be, having only achieved one race win at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. Despite switching car concepts over the winter, it has not produced the results they expected.
Speaking on the F1 Beyond the Grid Podcast, Allison is confident of a Mercedes comeback and explained the main changes they have made since the start of the season.
The main problem with the Mercedes W15
Mercedes identified the main cause for concern with the W15 is across the high and low-speed corners. The imbalance between the two results in the car either having too much understeer or too much oversteer for the drivers.
This affects the confidence of both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, and eliminating the problem has been a top priority for Mercedes engineers.
The team introduced a new front-wing concept aimed at unlocking the aerodynamic balance improvement, which it in-turn hopes can put them back on the right track.
With both cars running the new-spec wing in Canada, it visibly yielded a performance gain with Russell taking the pole after setting an identical time to Max Verstappen around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Briton was close to converting it into a win, had it not been for errors that cost him a shot at challenging Verstappen.
James Allison explains key Mercedes change
Allison has explained where Mercedes has improved specifically in the last three races, which should provide some confidence in their ability to turn around their results.
“Well, I think that the thing that has bedeviled us from the start of the year, the overriding thing, was that you could get the car okay in a slow corner, you could get it quite decent in a fast corner, but you couldn’t get it good in both at the same time,” said Allison.
“What has changed in the last two, three races is that we’ve modified the car in such a way as it has a reasonable high to low-speed balance and a reasonable through corner balance. It just means that the driver can trust both the front and rear axle in a fast corner and a slow corner and can trust it from when he hits the brakes at the beginning of the corner through the apex and out the other side.”
The European triple header is next on the F1 calendar, with Mercedes facing a significant points gap to their rivals.
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