Allison contradicts Wolff: 'Mercedes has some improvements in mind'

Max Verstappen and Red Bull are currently dominating Formula 1. Max's car has made huge strides this year and is now better than Mercedes in terms of speed and consistency. Also in terms of reliability, things are looking good for the Dutchman's team so far. At Mercedes however, things are not going as smoothly.

Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton said last weekend and earlier this week that no more updates are expected this season. In the F1 Nations Podcast Mercedes technical director James Allison says that some updates are indeed on the way.

"We have some improvements in mind that will make our car faster in the upcoming races. Let's hope it's enough". What exactly these updates are, he then leaves unconfirmed. How much influence these updates will have and if it is not too late, will be clear later on. In any case, it concerns improvements to the engine and chassis.

Allison on Wolff's statements

It's striking because both Wolff and Hamilton seemed to be sure that there would be no more updates. Allison tries to explain this in the same podcast. "I don't think one precludes the other and I don't think Wolff said exactly that (that Mercedes stopped developing). What Toto was trying to say is that next year's rule changes are big and we need to pay a lot of attention to them."

Allison acknowledges that the focus does lie on 2022, but. "So most of our focus is on next year and how we can generate as much speed as possible under the new regulations, doesn't mean we don't have anything in the pipeline for this year though." So there are still some updates to come. The question now is: when, what will be the impact on performance and will it be in time?