Mercedes WON'T go back to drawing board with car design for 2024 claims technical director James Allison

Mercedes

Mercedes WON'T go back to drawing board with car design for 2024

Despite the constructor's current W14 struggles, their technical director has ruled out sweeping changes

Dan Davis

Monday 1 May 2023 11:27 Updated: 12:11

Mercedes technical director James Allison has insisted the team will not return to the drawing board when designing next year's Formula 1 car.

Allison recently returned to his role after the constructor moved Mike Elliott back across to take up his former position as chief technology officer.

The changes came in light of the struggles with this year's W14, forcing Mercedes to piece together an aggressive package designed to improve performance. Meanwhile, Allison is already pondering over future development and direction.

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It has been widely reported that the team have discussed switching up concepts, which may even see them pivot from their unique zero sidepod stance.

Allison, however, does not believe a drastic revamp of their current model is necessary.

Mercedes' W14 has proven unpredictable so far this year

Allison: "Almost never would you tear things up"

"I don't think any of us would ever consider a wholesale revamp clean sheet a good or prosperous approach," he said at a press conference in Baku.

"If the rules change, then of course you have to change with them, but engineering is about iteration. And, in all likelihood, if you tear things up, and I am going to mix metaphors horrifically here, you are going to just throw away an awful lot of baby along with a small amount of bathwater.

"All of these cars, from the top to the bottom of the grid, are unbelievably good cars and it is merely a question of how competitive are you. Are you the best in the whole world?

"You are going to use the platform you have and you're going to choose the paths forward that allow it to get better in the fastest possible way. And almost never, in fact never, would you ever tear things up and say: 'No, enough with that, let's change and do something completely different.'"

Mercedes have openly accepted they must twist rather than stick in light of their deficit to Red Bull, a gap so glaring that Lewis Hamilton admitted to being staggered by the straight-line speed of the rival RB19.