James Allison laments 'missed opportunity' for Mercedes in 2024

"This year is not a year I would like to repeat," concedes James Allison, technical director of Mercedes, in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix debriefing video posted by his team. Despite four victories (compared to none in 2023, and only one in 2022), the 2024 championship has not been easy for the German team. At the start, the Silver Arrows single-seaters found themselves in a bad position before getting their heads above water in the middle of the season by winning three races this summer at the Austrian, British and Belgian Grand Prix, then a fourth in the last part of the Championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

For the English engineer, "This roller coaster has been marked by extreme disappointment at the beginning of the year, followed by a sense of recovery, then some unease and other bright spots" which created the " general feeling within the team of a missed opportunity." James Allison seems disappointed with the W15's performance: "We have not achieved the goals we would have liked to achieve, regrets the 56-year-old man. Watching other people win championships while we're just spectators is not fun at all. So it's been a tough year."

Allison wants to get back to the top

Between the departure of Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari in 2025, announced at the dawn of the season, and the team's setbacks on the track, Mercedes has had a rich year "on an emotional level." For James Allison, the difficulties are also the beauty of the sport: « It's so hard to do everything right, he underlines. Those who achieve this have earned it and you can only take your hat off to them. When I saw the smiles on the pilots' faces McLaren This weekend I thought to myself that I knew what it was like and that I envied them, but that they had earned it. All this makes you want to live again." Mercedes will have the opportunity to have something new next year: the Silver Arrows will welcome the young Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2025, who will have the difficult task of replacing the seven-time world champion next season.

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