Mercedes not considering clean sheet design for 2024 F1 W15 car

Allison has just returned to the role of technical director at Mercedes after the German manufacturer swapped Mike Elliott across to take his previous position of chief technology officer.

With Mercedes working on an aggressive update package for the current W14, Allison has taken charge of working out how best to attack future development.

While the team has talked about switching car concepts, which will include a change of sidepod design, Allison does not believe that the squad needs a complete revamp of its current challenger.

Asked by Autosport for his verdict on the W14 and whether or not the team needed something totally new for 2024, Allison said: “I don't think any of us would ever consider a wholesale revamp clean sheet as a good or prosperous approach.

“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 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.’”

James Allison, Technical Director, Mercedes-AMG

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Allison said that Mercedes was not embarking on anything too radical on where it wanted the W14 to improve.

Speaking about the development plans, he said: “We'll be trying to add downforce to the car and try not to add too much drag for the downforce we're adding.

“We will also be trying to improve the balance of the car. I think there isn't a car out there with a perfect balance, and ours is very much less than perfect.

“We'll be trying to work on that aerodynamically and in terms of platform control with the suspension. But there is no great revelation there, all the things that will make our car faster would make every car on the grid faster.

“The trick is to try to make sure we're bringing them quickly enough that we make a relative improvement on our competitors. But there's no magic to that.”