“Not fair” - Mercedes dismiss wild theories behind Lewis Hamilton’s 1-8 George Russell record

James Allison has insisted that Mercedes give both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell “identical” machinery amid wild theories that the team are favouring the younger British driver.

Hamilton has endured a difficult start to the year in 2024, in what will be his final campaign with Mercedes.

The seven-time world champion has particularly struggled with qualifying as Russell leads 8-1 in the head-to-head.

Hamilton’s form on a Saturday has led to some fans questioning whether Russell is being deliberately favoured given Hamilton will join Ferrari for next year.

The 39-year-old put out a number of intriguing statements after qualifying in Monaco, claiming he wouldn’t be able to beat Russell over one-lap at all.

However, Hamilton did appear to take more of the blame for his lack of qualifying form in Canada.

Allison was asked about the contrast in qualifying performances at Mercedes and addressed the idea that one driver is being favoured.

“I think that if you try and read into that stuff that isn’t there, like somehow he’s got a systematic disadvantage on qualifying day, that’s not true and not fair,” he said on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“So far as we can make it, the cars are identical. The engine use is identical. If the cars are different on setup, it’s because that’s what the driving engineering team on either side of the garage have iterated to.

“But they have the chance to have identical stuff if they chose. On one occasion this year and famously in Monaco, they had a different front wing on the car because we only had one available and we took the decision that we would get that wing on the car as soon as we could, and it had to go to one or the other.

“We had the conversation and Lewis said ‘no, I’ll let George have it’.”

Hamilton is statistically the greatest qualifier in F1 history with 104 pole positions to his name.

Allison believes it’s down to “fine margins” that he’s 8-1 down to Russell.

“I wouldn’t have predicted 8-1,” Allison added. “And I think that for a chunk of the year, the car has been a pretty troubled beast. It’s become a much, much better car in the last two or three races and, with that, I think the judgments about who may or may not put it in front of the other car become more meaningful, because the car is less of a random number generator.

“Lewis has, not by accident, been the best qualifier in the history of the sport, because I think he’s been the best driver in the sport, but he’s struggling to make it stick this year by fine margins, as you say. I think, to a degree, I was speculating this in an email I sent to the factory yesterday that the current car-tyre combo, not just us, across the pit lane, it doesn’t like being hustled, you almost get the best lap times when you’re not trying.

“And you see every weekend, you’ll see someone pop a lap time in free practice or in qualifying, in some session or other, you’ll see some car and you think, ‘how did that get there?’ And then they don’t do it again, it sort of disappears in the mist straight after. I think in qualifying it’s quite hard, where you’re all pumped up and you’re wanting to get the best from it, to do a lap that is sort of relaxed enough to get the best out of the car.”