"‘I don’t know,’ is the answer to that": Mercedes director's muted response to the team's prospects for the 2024 F1 season

Mercedes technical director James Allison remains tight-lipped on what the team's prospects will be for the 2024 F1 season despite claiming the German outfit has set up an ambitious program. Mercedes has been going through a bad run of form ever since the regulations changed.

With the change in regulations, there was a bigger emphasis on the ground effect that saw Mercedes fall behind while rivals Red Bull stole the march. The last two seasons have seen R dominating the sport. The 2023 F1 season was the peak where the team won 21 of the 22 races.

Max Verstappen himself is now a 3-time world champion and won a record 19 races in 2023. Mercedes on the other hand has just one win in two years. When questioned about what he expects from the 2024 F1 season, James Allison kept his cards close to his chest and didn't commit to anything.

Allison did, however, admit that the team has put a very ambitious development plan in place and it remains to be seen what result that would give. He said on his appearance on the performance podcast:

“‘I don’t know,’ is the answer to that. I hope that we have put in place enough of a program of work that we have put ourselves in with a shout to be back to [competitiveness]. [When you say] ‘winning ways’, does that mean winning a race? Does that mean winning a Championship?"

“In my head, it’s only ever about Championships. That’s what Formula 1 is: it’s a Constructors’ and a Drivers’ Championship. I hope that we have done enough to give ourselves a shout of being in a Championship fight in both Championships. If you look at the long march of F1 history, then the stats are against us. Teams do not bounce back from slipping from their previous peak in the length of time that we have set ourselves," Allison added.

Mercedes director talks about the ambitious program

Allison did not want to commit one way or the other to what Mercedes was going to achieve. But he was quite pragmatic when he claimed that while there is an ambitious program in place, whether it is sufficient enough to close the margin to the front remains to be seen.

“But we have nevertheless set a pretty ambitious program. We have quite a lot of strength in depth here and we’ve made quite a lot of progress with next year’s car. Whether it proves sufficient or not, only time will tell, but that’s what I’m hoping for us and I know that all my colleagues and team-mates around me will be hoping for the same,” he explained.

Mercedes has been working hard on the 2024 F1 challenger. The work started early last year and it will be interesting to see where the team ends up in the pecking order in 2024.