Mercedes Technical Director, James Allison has revealed when Mercedes will switch focus entirely towards 2026 and why, whilst highlighting where he believes McLaren are strongest.
"I think any team that has got a bit of common sense will still be putting a good chunk of their effort towards the future," said Allison to media present a the paddock in Bahrain.
'Mercedes to halt development of their 2025 F1 car at the third of the year'
"Because the 2026 rules are such a tear-up from these ones, and these ones have just got 21 races left to go and then they're done. So we're trying to push as much as we can onto the car in this first quarter, third of the year."
While the German team may still bring certain parts after that, their focus will be on the future, as Allison emphasises the potential to find more lap time not via development alone. "Maybe we'll have some bits after that, but it's a lot of effort going into the future. Happily, even without changing the geometry of the car, there's still quite a lot of lap time just in fine setup."
The Mercedes boss then weighs in on how the W16 stands against its rather difficult predecessors.
"It's reasonably tractable. If you look at us in every session of every track this year, we've been in pretty much the same place. It’s been wet, dry, cold tracks, warmer tracks, rough asphalt, smooth asphalt—we’ve been there or thereabouts."
Where do McLaren have the upper-hand on the rest of the field?
Does the consistency in the W16 bode well for the prospect of a succesfull season for Mercedes? "I think it means we'll spend more of our time making it quicker and less of our time scratching our heads," said Allison.
However, there's one major obstacle that stands between Mercedes and a certain run for the titles: McLaren. Where does the British engineer believe the Woking-based team are ahead of everyone else?
"I think no one knows that. If we did, it would be very easy to copy, wouldn't it? I think you could take a reasonable stab at saying that their surface temperatures at the rear of the car are likely to be lower than the other teams, because their advantage is found most when you're at a rear-limited track and where rear tyre temperatures are governing your pace."
Oscar Piastri led the second practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix, from Lando Norris, with an advantage of more than 5 tenths to the nearest rival driver, George Russell. Read more
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