Mercedes Technical Director Explains Decision-Making Ahead of U.S. Grand Prix

Mercedes technical director James Allison addressed why the team opted not to change Lewis Hamilton’s car setup or provide him with a fresh engine after his disappointing qualifying position for the United States Grand Prix.

In a recent video released by the team, Allison acknowledged that there were discussions about altering Hamilton’s setup, similar to the changes made for teammate George Russell, who started from the pits after a crash. However, Allison emphasized that there was no compelling reason to adjust Hamilton’s car.

“It was an option to do what George did, to start from the pit lane having changed the setup on his car between qualifying and the race,” Allison explained. “But we didn’t actually have any reason to think there was much wrong with Lewis’s setup. He had his best bodywork on, and he had the grid position we had, which is further up the road than starting from the pit lane. So why not start where you’d qualified even if it wasn’t the place you wished you’d qualified? That was uppermost in our mind with respect to setup changes.”

Allison also provided insight into a technical issue that affected Hamilton during the sprint race. “Anyone who watched it on telly would have heard Lewis saying, ‘I can feel it clicking’ as he got ready for the sprint race,” he said. “When we stripped the car after the sprint race, we found that one of the bearings that holds one of the wishbones on had started to break up. That was making it move around and giving him that clicking noise, which also was associated with a bunch of inconsistency in handling.”

He elaborated on how this issue impacted Hamilton’s performance: “Even though it’s a front-end problem, it translates to the car feeling loose and unpredictable, and that had an impact on his race in the sprint race.”

Fortunately, the problematic part was replaced in time for qualifying, although Hamilton faced unexpected challenges, failing to reach Q2. “We replaced that part and that problem didn’t re-emerge,” Allison noted. “It was a pain for us to have suffered that problem. Difficult for Lewis to then have the sprint race that way, but that particular thing was put to bed by quali and didn’t feature thereafter.”

As the team looks ahead, Allison remains optimistic about addressing these technical challenges in future races.