Lewis Hamilton will have been left delighted that Mercedes are ready to show doubters “they’re wrong”, with the team’s technical director James Allison believing it’ll feel incredible once it happens.
The Silver Arrows are incredibly upbeat ahead of the 2024 Formula 1 season, despite the last two campaigns having been disastrous.
Mercedes have just one victory to their name from the past two seasons, courtesy of George Russell at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.
They did at least manage to clinch second in the Constructors’ Championship, albeit 451 points behind Red Bull.
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Red Bull were simply perfect in 2023, whilst Mercedes were far too inconsistent and never truly in a position to challenge the Austrians for victory.
Hamilton was the Brackley-based side’s strongest driver by some margin last year, although he remains without a victory since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
He secured third in the Drivers’ Championship and was the highest finishing non-Red Bull driver, yet he was fairly despondent with how the campaign went.
The seven-time World Champion doesn’t want to be competing simply for third in the standings, he wants an elusive eighth Drivers’ Championship.
Most don’t think he’ll claim this at Mercedes, with the “negative narrative” surrounding the team being that they’re on a downward spiral from their glory days.
However, the 39-year-old clearly believes that the Germans can give him a good enough car, based on the fact he’s remaining with them for at least another two seasons.
Mercedes seem to believe the same thing, with Allison revealing that the Silver Arrows are incredibly determined and are more than happy for people to doubt them.
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“There’s a sense that we’re all in this together and that people have sort of written our future for us – the once great team now in decline – and all of the negative narrative that comes around with that,” Allison said on the Performance Podcast.
“As long as internally we’re saying, ‘Well, let them say that, because that’s their job, they’ve got to say something’.
“Our job is to show them they’re wrong and imagine how good that’s going to feel when they’ve all been looking sympathetically at us, and with faux sympathy, in our direction.
“We just suck that up and go, ‘Okay, right, we’re going to work on this, we’re going to come back, and we’re going to show them’.”