Mercedes chief reveals Hamilton calamity beyond ‘wildest dreams’
James Allison revealed that Mercedes’ poor performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix left the team unsure of what they expected to achieve a podium finish.
The team suffered arguably the worst weekend of its turbo-hybrid era as George Russell retired from tenth, while Lewis Hamilton finished eighth and more than a minute behind winner Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton finished 62 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen in Brazil – almost a second per lap.
Indeed, over the weekend the Silver Arrows seemed to struggle in the high temperatures in Sao Paulo, with Lewis Hamilton calling his Mercedes W14 “quite slow”.
In stark contrast to George Russell’s victory last year, the team’s taller players may be worried about the close second they need to recover before the 2024 season opener in Bahrain in just four months and #039; time
Allison: Never in my wildest dreams
Speaking to the F1 Nation podcast about the weekend, James Allison, who recently returned to his original role as technical director, gave a chilling assessment of their performance. “I just emailed the factory and said it hit me for six,” he said. “Since we came here, it would have been too much to imagine a repeat of last year’s win because the stars would have had to align a little bit for that. I felt we took care of the podium.
George Russell was forced to leave the Brazilian GP after his car showed signs of overheating
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we’d just had a terrible weekend. It’s kind of comforting because we must have done something wrong and we’ll find out what it was. “Good luck with this wonderful thing that the race gives you, in [a couple of] weeks and#039; when we come back and hopefully put him to sleep.”
Formula 1 will visit Las Vegas in two weeks, a circuit that could strengthen Mercedesand#039; battles
There will be a long debate over the next two weeks about where to move to assembly before Formula 1 visits Las Vegas for the first time in the 21st century.
Vegas appears to be a quick and fast track which could only exaggerate Mercedes’ problems and heighten their fears that maintaining second place in the manufacturers’ championship may be more difficult than first thought.
