Mercedes bring back James Allison after woeful start to 2023

Mercedes appear to have the fourth-fastest car on the Formula 1 grid at the moment.

After limping to a third place finish in last seasons’ constructors’ championship, it seemed that the only way was up for Mercedes in 2023.

Under the new regulations, the team got their design for the W13 completely wrong and suffered with a severe porpoising problem and a general lack of performance.

The Silver Arrows surprisingly turned up to pre-season testing with a W14 which looked a lot like last year’s car however, with the zero sidepod design being something that the team decided to stick with.

The W13 and W14 were both created by current technical director Mike Elliott, who has come under fire from Mercedes fans after seeing they saw their team be outperformed by Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin during the season opener in Bahrain.

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The Aston Martin leapfrogging has particularly hurt Mercedes as they supply the team with their engines, meaning that Aston Martin simply have a better car design than them.

In an attempt to quickly return to competitiveness, Mercedes have now brought back former technical director James Allison to the team to oversee upgrades for the W13.

At the end of 2021, Allison moved to work for INEOS Team UK, a sailing team, allowing Mike Elliott to step up in his absence.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has already admitted that his team have got their approach to 2023 completely wrong, telling the media that significant changes need to be made in the near future.

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It is expected that the Silver Arrows will ditch their zero sidepod approach as soon as possible to adopt an approach similar to Red Bull and Aston Martin.

James Allison has wasted no time in getting stuck back in at Mercedes, with the Brit reportedly having a massive has in the updates for the W14 which are planned to be on the car by the time F1 travels to Imola.

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that his P5 finish in Bahrain was the best result that he could have hoped for considering the struggles of the W14, which is not something that he would have wanted to be saying heading in to the season as he targets a record breaking eighth world title before he retires.