Mercedes still have ‘so much more to do’ to make 2023 F1 car competitive

Lewis Hamilton finished second behind Max Verstappen's Red Bull while teammate George Russell brilliantly recovered to third in Barcelona last time out as Mercedes had their best race of the season so far. 

Mercedes’ most competitive showing of the season came a week after they debuted a major upgrade package at the Monaco Grand Prix. 

While technical director James Allison said Mercedes’ first double podium of the year “put a smile on everyone’s face”, he stressed it is too early to jump to conclusions about their uptick in form. 

“I think it’s probably a little bit too soon to say that summer’s arrived with that one swallow,” Allison said ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. 

"But nevertheless, everybody enjoyed seeing a car that was going a decent lick, looking after its tyres and scoring two podiums on merit. 

“So, hopefully we’ve turned a bit of a corner. I think this track is going to be very different in the challenges it places on a car. But I think we’re sort of gently on the up.”

Both drivers reported they felt happier with the revised-W14 in Barcelona but Allison warned that Mercedes still have a lot of work to do to catch Red Bull. 

“I think they felt a bit happier under braking,” he said. “But there is so much more to do to make it competitive with the front of the grid that I think the main thing people were responding to was just the pace. 

“I don’t think it felt like a lovely car to be in, it was just going at a decent lick. The balance was not too bad and a good return on the efforts of everyone to bring those updates forward.”

Asked whether Mercedes may have lost an opportunity to close the gap to Red Bull given their extra allocation of aerodynamic testing time, Allison responded: “We’re just trying to work the best we can with our own ATR limit, not worrying too much about the people who were behind us having more, or the people in front of us having less. 

“As regards to lost opportunity, we don’t really separate out from ATR particularly from every other aspect of resource that we bought to bear on the current car we have, which is clearly not competitive with respect to Red Bull.

“Until it is, we’re all going to feel a bit miffed about that, even though the sort of unhappiness we see every time they win is offset hugely by the fact that it is thrilling in its own way to be fighting back and to be improving our own car week-on-week and to hold clear in our heads that they don’t have a god-given right to be in the lead. 

“They are there on merit having worked really well and if we go do as well, or a better job, we’ll be there. That is actually a lot of fun, a very exhilarating sort of thought once you frame it correctly in your head and something that we’re all tucked in to try and make a reality.”