Mercedes Formula 1 Technical Director James Allison has admitted it can take inspiration from Red Bull’s approach to retaining faith in its methods during a title drought.
The German marque sustained an unrivalled run of success before the sport’s latest technical overhaul in 2022, winning eight consecutive Constructors’ Championship.
However, Mercedes has struggled since F1 returned to ground effect aero, logging a single victory and lagging 454 points behind Red Bull, who won all but one race in 2023.
Although Mercedes endured a first winless season since 2011 last term, Allison, who returned to the Technical Director role midway through the year, admits that the challenge of attempting to catch the reigning World Champions has whetted his appetite.
“You say it’s no fun, actually it’s lots of fun,” Allison said regarding Red Bull’s dominance.
“It isn’t as much fun as winning, that’s definitely true, but you have to sort of love the whole of the sport. It involves taking your licks when you haven’t done a good enough job.”
Upon the switch to V6 turbo-hybrid engines in 2014, Red Bull had initially been limited to only settling for a handful of wins each year with its underpowered Renault power unit.
Allison, however, believes preserving its core principles during that barren period has been instrumental in the team’s recent success and is something Mercedes should replicate.
“I think one of the things to admire about Red Bull’s current performance is that they stuck gamely to their task in quite a long period in the wilderness,” Allison acknowledged.
“They are now enjoying the fruits of that well-placed labour. It’s far from unenjoyable being in that position, as long as the team is collectively confident that it’s making the right moves to try to re-establish itself as a force to be reckoned with. There’s loads and loads of fun to be had in that.”
Allison remains wary that Mercedes will likely encounter more troubles in its bid to return to the top, but he is confident the side has what it takes to gradually reel in Red Bull.
“It’s always a roller coaster of getting your hopes up, being slapped down a bit by the racing gods and then gathering your skirts again to have another push,” he explained.
“I hope that that journey upwards is steep and strong and secure, but it will be great fun trying to drive it at whatever pace we can to give our rivals a good old fight.”
Allison, who is overseeing a revised concept on Mercedes’ W15 challenger, revealed that he is optimistic the team has dialled out the “spiteful” rear-end traits of its predecessor.
But while the indications from the simulator look positive, the Briton remains anxious about Mercedes’ prospects until he sees what the competition has delivered this year.
“I don’t think any team has ever been anything other than apprehensive at this time of year, alongside excited or whatever,” he said. “You’d have to be psychotic to be bullishly confident because you only know one side of the equation, which is what you’ve done.
“There have been years where you run a car for the first time and the drivers sort of got out and said: ‘Well spend your bonus, this is a brilliant one.’
“But even then, you don’t really believe it until you get to the track and start using it in anger and everyone else is alongside you.”
