Mercedes director opens up on 'oh God, how could we have been so dumb?' moment experienced by the team

Mercedes technical director James Allison claimed that the team's recent progress was less of a 'eureka' moment and more of laughing at their own 'dumb' decisions. The German team finally made progress in the aero regulations introduced in the 2022 season and closed the gap to Red Bull at the top.

The former world champions often found themselves lost when it came to the aspects of development and progress since the 2022 season, having claimed only one victory in the last two and a half years. In Canada, they were arguably the fastest car on the weekend and should have won the race but secured a P3 and P4 with George Russell leading Lewis Hamilton.

While appearing on the "Beyond the Grid" podcast, the Mercedes man spoke about the recent progression and talked about the feeling of 'dumbness', saying:

“This is more of an ‘oh God, how could we have been so dumb?!’ type moment, where you see the path forward and you should have seen it sooner! The thing that has bedeviled us from the start of the year was that you could get the car okay in a slow corner, you could get it quite decent in a fast corner, but you couldn't get it good in both at the same time."

He spoke about the differences in performances that they had experienced in the last couple of races that have enhanced their results:

“What has changed in the last two or three races is that we've modified the car in such a way that it actually has a reasonable high to low-speed balance and a reasonable through-corner balance."

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James Allison reflects confidence in Mercedes's ability to fight at the top

James Allison said that he was 'absolutely certain' that they could replicate their results and performance of the Canadian GP on other tracks as well. As per the aforementioned source, the Mercedes director asserted his belief in the team getting their car to be competitive this season regardless of the tracks.

However, having previously achieved pole position in Montreal, Allison pointed out that he would be 'surprised' if they were to repeat the feat in Barcelona as well.

"I'm pretty sure that we will make a good showing in the nearby future races, I'd be surprised if we're on pole at the next one, for example. But I am absolutely certain that we can be as fast as anybody over the coming period,” he added.

Unlike several other teams on the grid, Mercedes did not bring any upgrades to the Barcelona track as they had pushed for their package in Monaco.

They are currently P4 in the Constructor's Championship with 124 points in nine races and two Sprints thus far and are 88 points behind McLaren in P3 while being 177 points behind the leader, Red Bull.