Venturiation wrote: ↑22 Dec 2023, 14:13
Allison characterises the increase in the floor-edge height by 15mm as coming “quite late in the day”, but acknowledges it meant the cars would bounce less. The question was, how to respond to that?
“There was a big debate internally,” says Allison. “Should we cash in that 15mm and drop the car down, operate the car in a window that is 15mm smaller, because the cars will be less bouncy inherently? Or should we do more of what has done us well over the course of the year, which was force ourselves to keep looking for downforce where it’s difficult high up?
“These rules don’t reward you [with downforce] high up, it’s really hard to find, but that brought us some benefits over the course of last year. So the debate raged internally for a while. The logic was it’s very hard to predict because the tools are not especially good for this, anyone’s tools, not just ours. They are not very good for predicting exactly where bouncing is going to be incurred.
“It’s much harder to back yourself out of having driven off the edge of a cliff and finding yourself bouncing than it is to be too high, not bouncing and then lower yourself towards it. So the outcome of our internal debate was let’s err on the cautious side, let’s keep trying to find downforce where it’s hard and if it turns out we’ve been too cautious we will spend the months that follow working quickly to recover that.
“And if we’re lucky and others cash in the 15mm – and without tools that prove to them everything will be fine, I remain of the view it was a gamble - then they’ll all bounce and we'll be the smart ones for having taken the cautious approach. So that was the route.
To me this paragraph captures the problem at Mercedes that has not allowed them to excel under the regulations change like they had in the past. Attempting to be "too smart" for their own good and perhaps lacking some humility.
The logic was it’s very hard to predict because the tools are not especially good for this, anyone’s tools, not just ours.
Clearly that's not true about Red Bull, and perhaps not Mclaren either.
“And if we’re lucky and others cash in the 15mm – and without tools that prove to them everything will be fine, I remain of the view it was a gamble - then they’ll all bounce and we'll be the smart ones for having taken the cautious approach. So that was the route.
You can see it here again. "we'll be the smart ones".
When Perez crashed his cars in Monaco, Allison was on record saying he was "not that impressed" by Red Bull's floor. We also know that the team couldn't be bothered to listen to Hamilton's input. It seems like they are suffering from arrogance, and it comes from the very top as well (both Elliot and Allison).
