Mercedes expecting 'explosion of creative effort' after F1 hiatus

Mercedes technical director James Allison believes the current shutdown is spurring the creative juices of the team's engineers, with ideas ready to flow when the work resumes.

Amid the global coronavirus crisis, Formula 1 was compelled to bring forward its annual summer break, the length of which was extended to help team staff cope with lockdown measures in the UK and across Europe.

But there's no off position on the genius switch, which encourages Allison to believe that prolific engineering minds are likely remaining in gear during the pause.

"If we can’t race we can’t earn, if we can’t earn we shouldn’t spend," Allison said in an interview posted on Mercedes' YouTube channel. "And so shutdown is the most sensible way for us to traverse this difficult period.

"But it doesn’t mean that your brain shuts off completely and up and down our company there will be many an engineer who is sitting there pondering how to put themselves to making the car faster when we do eventually return to work.

• Allison pays emotional tribute to 'warmhearted' Mercedes

"I think this break will prompt all sorts of creative ideas in our team because quite often the best ideas come when you’re faced with a different challenge, when your mind is running free and doing different things.

"So I suspect when we get back having had our creativity and our efforts stymied by this virus, we’ll have an explosion of creative effort amongst the whole team."
Mercedes' Dual Axis Steering device (DAS) which was uncovered on the Silver Arrows' W11 earlier this year in Barcelona is perhaps a prime example of innovation brought to the fore.

But Allison insists that, while DAS grabbed the headlines, the creativity of the Mercedes squad permeates through every component and concept that finds its way onto its cars..

"The car is as beautiful a manifestation of a thousand people's innovation and creativity as you could wish to have," said Allison.

"Although there are eye-catching and flashy things, like the DAS, on this year's car, there is written through every part of the car's substance, innovation at every level."

Case in point, Allison pointed to the Mercedes W11's rear suspension.

"Just take our lower rear wishbone. Effectively we've swapped the front and rear leg round," he explained.

"It doesn't garner much attention in the press because it's not that dramatic visually, but by doing that you give a more clear run for the aerodynamicists to get high-energy air down to a part of the car that loves high-energy air.

"To do that, all the people who work on the structural side, the gearbox, the suspension, crash structures, really have their work cut out to put together a layout of suspension that is kinematically good, and which is strong enough and stiff enough to retain the same sort of driving characteristics that we know worked so well on the previous year's car, despite the fact a lot of the main forces are running down very different paths through the legs once you juggle them around like that.

"It required the skill of dozens of people to make that happen, and when I look at that lower rear wishbone I'm every bit as proud of the team that was capable of creating that as I am of the equally clever and skilful engineers that put together the DAS package.

"The car is covered in such stuff, and I hope will be again in the seasons in the future," concluded Allison.

"One of the lovely things about being in this sport is that you just get to bathe in this sea of creativity that comes from hundreds of people, all focused on the same goal, which is creating the fastest car out there, and fighting it to the front in the races."

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