James Allison says that much of the ongoing issue with the Mercedes W15 is down to warmer track temperatures which compromise the tyres.

While the W15 is a definite improvement on its predecessors, it is no match for the Red Bull and currently lagging behind the Ferrari and McLaren.

The opening three circuits have all been entirely different, and while the events in Melbourne complicated the matter, James Allison believes that a pattern is slowly beginning to emerge.

"We are starting to see a pattern emerge that most weekends we have a period in the weekend where we are feeling confident about the car," he says in the latest team debrief.

"But then in the paying sessions, in qualifying and the race, that slips through our fingers," he admits.

"If we were trying to draw that pattern together then probably the strongest correlation that we can make at the moment, is that our competitiveness drops when the track is warm, when the day is at its warmest and therefore the tyre temperatures rise with those of the track. That gives us some clues about what we need to do as we move forward from here.

"From FP3 to qualifying in Melbourne there was not a set-up change," he adds, confirming what Toto Wolff had previously said, having admitted that the team was totally mystified by the drop in performance between the two sessions.

"If you know what you're shooting for, if you've sort of identified correctly an accurate assessment of why our competitiveness waxes and wanes, then you can work into the weekend a program that is dedicated towards trying to move the temperature and the temperature balance front to rear in your favour and using all the conventional set up tools on the car," says Allison. "That work you can do back here in the factory and the simulation and so on.

"But if you conclude having exhausted the degrees of freedom that you have available to you in setup terms that you still need to go further, well then that gets harder at that point because that will be that there are underlying characteristics in say the aerodynamic map that you've engineered or the suspension characteristic that is aggravating that particular feature, and in order to make it really heal up nicely then you would have to change those underlying features.

"It can be either quick and dirty or a little more involved and a bit more complicated."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 01/04/2024 12:17

"Too many left hand threads and a paucity of spanners!!!"

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2. Posted by NS Biker, 29/03/2024 22:43

"RP, yer right of course. We are very tired of platitudes.
Is there a correlation between Mercedes and Williams with their common trait of airing their dirty laundry and excuses for one and all.? Seems to be.
This makes no sense. Get on with the job and if you are having trouble, and 3 itterations of cars would seem to indicate that might be the case (yes, sarcasm ...), than fid a way to fix it.
Just finished A. Newey's, How To Build A Car. WOW ... GREAT read.
There are numerous mentions in the book of similar situations that he ran into and what they had to do to fix it. Oh yes, they did indeed fix it. Garagistas are good at that.
For those that think the management at Mercedes needs to change, just remember who owns 33% of the F1 Team. Not going to happen any time soon."

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3. Posted by RP, 29/03/2024 21:04

"It's quite puzzling when Mercedes is having so much issue with some variables such as temperature. They've seen temperature changes and have data over years at various tracks. The tyres are the same for everyone. The car, despite significant changes, is still lacking and the return of porpoising indicates them never really got it after last year's debacle. Is this a severe case of "Not invented here syndrome". How can you have 100(s) of engineers working on these issues and miss the boat. Look to the head and start chopping. We should all be tired of platitudes by now."

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4. Posted by Chester, 29/03/2024 13:09

"They do seem lost at sea. But after so many years of being on top it is nice to see McLaren, Ferrari and occasionally Aston Martin get the better of these guys."

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5. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 29/03/2024 12:18

"Sorry we have not a clue."

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6. Posted by Spindoctor, 29/03/2024 11:57

"I'm probably alone in finding a formula\tyres in which a few degrees change in ambient\track temperature can so drastically affect a car's performance & particularly "driveability" a bit silly.
Clearly Mercedes will need to add ambient & Track temperature variations to their wind tunnel & CFD programme..."

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Allison believes warmer conditions compromise the W15

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