Allison surprised Red Bull didn't 'rest on their laurels'

For Mercedes, 2024 is all about revenge. After a full season without a single win, the Germans want to be at the top of the podium once again. To achieve that goal Mercedes have been inspired by Red Bull Racing's RB19. Red Bull, in turn, took inspiration from technical director James Allison's Mercedes.

So it is a logical question to ask the Briton what exactly he was thinking when he first saw the RB20 for 2024? Against GPblog Allison said: "I thought that when a team is out in front, as they have been, it's quite easy to rest on your laurels. I thought bravo to them for being willing to do something that is not just a straightforward iteration of the previous season. That's what I mostly thought."

No satisfaction for Mercedes

Mercedes did not get the best use out of the W13 and W14 - with the so-called zero sidepod concept. Regularly in recent years, team members remarked that they had gone in the wrong direction with their cars. That Red Bull is now using ideas from Mercedes for their own cars could be seen as a kind of gratification.

Allison responds that he doesn't think like that. "You could go up and down this pit lane and take the engine cover shape off every car in the grid and plonk it on every other car in the grid. And it wouldn't make a hill of beans difference. What will be interesting is what they've done underneath that engine cover. So what they're using that volume for. But the external shape is neither here nor there."