James Allison says that the Mercedes factory in Brackley is working flat out
Mercedes Formula 1 technical director James Allison says that the team’s Brackley factory is on a “war footing” as it rushes upgrades through the system.
Allison noted that the way part of the latest package was fast-tracked for Miami with the remainder seen at Imola as an example of how hard the team is pushing to improve the W15.
Mercedes also has new parts slated for this weekend’s race in Monaco, with more coming for the following event in Canada.
“It certainly has been a push,” said Allison in a team Q&A. “The factory is really on a war footing at the moment, and the reason that upgrade package came in two parts is originally it was slated to arrive in one slab, but we brought forward what we could to get it a little bit quicker.
“It has been a big old push, and our challenge now is just to keep that momentum coming. We have some more pieces for the car, aerodynamic and others parts that will arrive for Monaco, again for Canada and again in the races to follow.
“We will keep on slogging the assets back in the factory that find the lap time to design them, build them, get them out on the car and hopefully just force our way up the grid.”
Allison said that the updates seen at Imola, which included a revised floor and rear wing, had done what they were intended to.
“It is always hard to judge because you are comparing whether your stuff is working on a playing field that is continuously in motion,” he said.
“A lot of other teams were bringing new kit, Ferrari with their upgrade in Imola and McLaren with a load of stuff for the previous race.
“You measure what you measure on your car, but ultimately the truly telling thing about whether your stuff worked is did you move forwards? Because that is the purpose of upgrades, is it propelling you up the grid in any meaningful way?
“And I would say based on the race pace that we saw in Imola that we took a gentle step forward. We are several tenths of a second now nearer the front than we were at the start of the year and in Imola itself, we moved a tenth or two nearer to the front.
“We are pretty happy with that. Everyone at the factory has been working so hard to bring these upgrades.”
Adam Cooper F1 