Mercedes technical director James Allison has admitted that he found the 2023 season to be ‘lots of fun’, despite the fact that the Silver Arrows ended the year without a Grand Prix victory for the first time in a decade.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominated the two World Championships in 2023 with the Dutchman responding to a – for his standards – slow start by winning 17 of the final 18 Grands Prix. The only other drivers to win a race last season were his team-mate Sergio Perez, who won two of the opening four, and Carlos Sainz, who triumphed in Singapore.
Mercedes, meanwhile, found themselves in a cat-and-mouse battle for second place with Ferrari. Despite their Italian rivals claiming seven pole positions and a Grand Prix victory, consistency and an absence of mechanical issues helped the Brackley-based team to finish three points clear in the final standings.
This was, however, of little consolation to Lewis Hamilton. The 39-year-old signed a new two-year contract with the Silver Arrows as he looks to achieve a record-breaking eighth World Championship in the near future, but was unable to fight consistently with the unstoppable Verstappen.
Despite those frustrations, Allison still enjoyed the season. “You say it’s no fun, actually it’s lots of fun,” he told Motorsport.com. “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.
“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. 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 reestablish itself as a force to be reckoned with. There’s loads and loads of fun to be had in that.”
With just two seasons remaining of the current regulation period, Mercedes have opted to scrap the design philosophy that set them back in 2022 and 2023, overhauling the car this winter ahead of the 2024 campaign as they look to close the gap to Red Bull and return Hamilton to World Championship contention.
