Mercedes

Mercedes reveal the "fear" and "worry" that nags away at them

Mercedes will launch its new car on March 2

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 16 February 2021 18:27

Mercedes technical director James Allison has outlined the fears and worries that are gnawing away at the team ahead of the new Formula 1 season.

Mercedes is currently on a record-breaking run of seven consecutive constructors' and drivers' titles and naturally head into the new campaign as favourites to make it eight in a row.

But Allison has stated that the staff at Brackley and Brixworth are typically resting uneasily for a variety of reasons as they wait for the W12 to take to the track in anger.

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"Although it is an unusual year, with Covid forcing on us a whole bunch of different rhythms, there are still some things that just don’t change," declared Allison in an interview on the Mercedes website.

"We are coming up to a new season, we’ve got all the fun and excitement ahead of us of finding out whether the work we have done is sufficient to produce a competitive car and that excitement is always matched by another emotion, which is anxiety.

"And that’s because we exist for one purpose: [to] produce a racing car that is capable of fighting at the front and hopefully securing wins and championships.

"At this stage of the year, you hope you have done enough work but we’re never certain until the cars are actually on a track doing it for real.

"So, alongside all that excitement is the fear and that fear nagging away continuously at you, [from] the moment you open your eyes in the morning all the way through the day until you go to bed at night. That fear of not doing enough.

"Although it can be a bit wearing, that fear is part of the cocktail of excitement that is being part of Formula One and it is something that you learn to live with over the seasons. But it’s always felt at its most sharp, at this time of year."

There is an added concern for Allison and the 1500-strong workforce across the two facilities that relate to the fact this year's car is predominantly based on last season's challenger, with the exception of a number of aerodynamic tweaks.

It has left Allison wondering whether no stone has been left unturned in a bid to ensure the car is as robust and as quick as its predecessors that have yielded so much success.

"It is a strange year this one," added Allison. "It feels like it’s going smoothly back here, and we hope it is going smoothly.

"But it’s such a different start to the year for us. So, there is a little part of us just nagging away in the back of our heads going: 'Have we forgotten something?'

"Because, unlike in a normal year, where we would have a billion new bits all streaming in from all four corners of the earth to put together the new car right at the last minute, this year is a little different.

"That’s because much of what we are going to launch with the W12 has already seen action on the track in 2020.

"So, instead of having all that new inventory being tested, put into sub-assemblies and then put onto the real car, we have instead got more of a management job to make sure our stock levels are right, we are putting all the things we need to in the right places and we are testing the things that have changed - rather than the entire car.

"And because that’s such a change of rhythm, it does make us worry have we missed something?

"We are busy, of course, double- and triple-checking we haven’t missed anything, so by the time things are ready to be put on planes and sent off to the tracks, we don’t have any embarrassing omissions."