Allison sets the record straight on Mercedes' zero sidepod design

Mercedes technical director James Allison has challenged the widely held belief that the team's radical zero-sidepod design was the primary cause of its struggles in F1 in 2022 and in early 2023.

Instead, Allison singles out Mercedes’ overall “concept” as the primary culprit of its struggles, although it’s a notion that differs from what many people understand it to be.

Mercedes' zero-sidepod approach was a bold move, aiming to gain a performance advantage through aerodynamic efficiency.

However, the design proved to be problematic, leading to severe porpoising and mechanical issues that hindered the car's performance throughout its 2022 campaign.

But George Russell’s dominant win in Brazil convinced the Brackley squad to stick with its W13 car’s novelty for 2023.

However, in last year’s opening races it became increasingly clear that the design was not viable, and the team introduced a more conventional-looking W14 in Monaco which marked a turning point for Mercedes.

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While constrained by F1’s mandatory cost cap rule, the Brackley squad was able to make significant improvements to the overall car concept, addressing the aerodynamic inefficiencies that had plagued its car.

In hindsight, Allison acknowledges that the zero-sidepod design attracted attention and may have contributed to the perception that it was the primary cause of Mercedes' struggles.

However, he emphasizes that the root of the problem lay in the team's overall approach to car design.

"I don't quite see the world the same way as you guys do, looking at a sidepod and deciding that's a concept," Allison explained to Sky Sports F1.

"We took a path with our car - and I would say that's from the tip of the nose to the very back of the tail - which was not a competitive one. The most visually notable aspect of that was our sidepods, but by no means [was that] the definitive factor [for a lack of performance].

"It was not right from front to back and that's the thing we have had to learn and have had to deal with - that's taken us longer than we would have liked.

"But the sidepods are maybe emblematic of a team that took a little too long to figure out which way was up, but by no means, [is it] the distinguishing feature that sealed our fate."

According to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, the outfit’s 2024 car is a complete departure from its predecessor, and shares little in common with W14 in terms of componentry.

But Allison insists that the word ‘concept’ in F1 refers to a process rather than to an actual design, adding that it was the former rather than the latter that sealed Mercedes’ fate.

"To the mind of a designer or a performance person in F1, concept is actually nothing to do with the car," he explained.

"It's about a process by which you decide what good looks like, and what bad looks like. It's your methodology for sort of sieving out all the many, many things you might put on the car and finding only the ones that you really think are going to add lap time.

"The car itself is just the output of that method.

"So when you talk to us about concept, we're hearing: 'What, you think our wind-tunnel weighting system wasn't right?'

"We've changed that, or our way of meshing in CFD was wrong and we've changed the concept of that.

"That's what concept means to us and the car just pops out at the far side of that when we apply that process and that concept.

"So, of course the last two years have required us to adjust our approach and our methodology, our concept, if you will.

"As a result of that, the hardware that pops out the far side of that will necessarily be different hardware, because it's defined by different decisions and different weightings of what's important and what isn't.

"You get all excited by the end result, but actually our fate is made by the approach."

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