Allison on "small margins" between Mercedes and Ferrari

Mercedes technical boss James Allison has revealed some of the key features on what could decide the title fight this season between his Mercedes team and Ferrari.

James Allison has rated this current season with Mercedes as the toughest in the V6 Hybrid era with the danger of Ferrari and the pressure that the Italian side are piling on Mercedes.

He says that Ferrari have an advantage this season with more horsepower, but also says that the two teams hold gains on each other depending on which circuit is being raced on.

"The development race has ebbed and flowed throughout the season but there are a little few patterns that are relatively constant," Allison explained on Mercedes' YouTube channel.

"Certainly for a few races now we've been missing just a few horsepower to a Ferrari that has been very, very impressive in terms of its rate of development this year.

"We are probably on average better than Ferrari through the corners at most tracks, sometimes they take a bit from us in low speeds, but in medium and high speeds we normally prosper relative to them.

"I would say they have tended to be a little stronger than us at tracks that are strongly rear-limited but we are talking small margins here.

"We have tended to have better pit stops while they have tended to have better starts, although we appear to have put that right in recent races with a lot of work from the good guys we have in the controls department in the factory."