Allison: W14 too reactive on corner entry, annoyingly dead at the apex

Despite Mercedes' shift in design concept to a more conventional sidepod design, the W14 is till inconsistent enough to give Lewis Hamilton and George Russell confidence when driving it on the limit.

And while many might think downforce is the ingredient the W14 needs to work well, Allison claims they have troubles with getting its balance through the corners right.

"Bread and butter downforce is always a good thing," Allison said, speaking on Mercedes website. "We are also trying to make the car more reassuring for the drivers when they initially turn in. It feels too reactive.

"And then when they get to the apex they have the opposite problem, where we want it to bite at the front and it doesn't. It's unstable when you first turn the wheel and then annoyingly dead when they get to the apex. We want it the other way around. That's what we are working on," he explained.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff recently said the team is now fully focused on the 2024 challenger, the W15, but Allison sees working on next season's car offers chances to develop the W14 as well, as the team targets to finish the current F1 campaign as the best team behind Red Bull.

He said: "At this stage of the year the wind tunnel is heavily focused on 2024. Large chunks of the drawing office, vehicle dynamics, manufacturing for long-lead time production items are starting to gather their skirts.

"From the summer break onwards, next year's car is where the largest call is answered. But that also gives opportunities for the W14 too.

"At the start of the year we were fourth-quickest, looking at our customers who were beating us, and that was frustrating. Ferrari were beating us too," Allison pointed out.

"Little by little we are gradually putting them behind us. Everything is playing a part in it. From strategy to engineering, reliability, manufacturing and the drivers who are metronomic in their ability to turn half-opportunities into points.

"Although it falls short of our initial aims, securing P2 nevertheless really matters for all of us. Especially in the second half of the season when the tone will be shifting to the W15," the British engineer concluded.

Early in 2023, Allison has returned into the Technical Director role replacing Mike Elliott, the man responsible for Mercedes' failed zeropod concept, the latter given the hands off role of Chief Technical Officer.