(Motorsport-Total.com) – Mercedes technical director James Allison explained that the team’s decision to push the development of the 2026 Formula 1 car exceptionally far ahead led to a shift compared to the competition. This causes a real switching effect at the top, as updates during the ongoing season bring massive performance jumps.
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The W17 has so far been the benchmark in the field: it started the season with a double victory in Australia and secured eight wins in the first eleven races of the new Formula 1 era. Although the team is considered the clear title favorite, this did not prevent Ferrari and McLaren from beating Mercedes on their own strength during 2026.
In the team’s internal podcast show Nu Silver Arrows Radio, Allison explains that the team currently finds “about six to seven times more” lap time per week in the wind tunnel than last year. This illustrates the difference between progress under a completely new regulation compared to a mature rule phase at its end.
He also reveals that the team decided to freeze the design of the W17 extremely late. When teams design their cars, they usually set a point for the “design freeze”: from this moment on, the car goes unchanged into production, while further developments are bundled as later updates.
Mercedes, however, decided to push this deadline back. This drastically compressed the production time but allowed early development steps to be incorporated directly into the launch car.
Allison admits that this schedule offered “less than no buffer” for unforeseen problems but allowed the team to get the maximum out of the steep development curve.
Seven times greater progress than 2025
“Aerodynamically, the rate of progress per week in the wind tunnel – that is, the lap time we find – is about six to seven times higher than last year,” says Allison. “We are talking about about half a second every two months or something like that. So that is extremely steep. And we have done everything in our power to bring a car to the start at the beginning of the season that would be strong.”
“Thank God that was a solid undertaking. But a crucial point of our development strategy was the internal decision on the aerodynamics and chassis side to freeze the design as late as never before – several weeks later. And we set up a plan that basically contained no buffer at all,” he continues.
“As a result of this plan, we packed as much of this extremely steep development curve directly into the first car for the first race as humanly possible. For that, we completely exhausted all reserves.”
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“Other teams may not have pushed the timing quite so close to the limit. As a result, they were able to equip their cars earlier with first updates.”
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Allison emphasizes that this gave Mercedes a big advantage at the start of the year, but afterwards the team’s development pipeline emptied. As a result, they are now “one or two races” behind rivals in delivering new parts, as they had to refill their reserves first.
He explained that a half-second lead can completely disappear once the competition brings updates. This made Mercedes vulnerable at times while waiting for their own developments – hoping to restore the old gap.
This explains the constant ups and downs in the balance of power between the teams: Ferrari found good pace in Barcelona through an extensive update package, while McLaren’s new floor in Hungary paved the way to the first race win of the season.
“They froze the design of their car earlier and were therefore able to develop the first upgrade that came into use earlier in the season. So we arrived full of performance but had already used up our powder,” says Allison.
“We had to refill the tank first to be able to follow up, and that’s why we are somewhat out of phase. Because we went so far with our launch package, our development program is now one or two races behind the update cycles of the others,” he explains.
Riding out the competition’s development jumps
“If you look at the lap times, it seems as if everyone is on the same slope as us. Everyone finds about half a second every two months. If you lag half a step behind in the development cycle, that means: a half-second lead, like we had at the beginning of the year, can completely melt away through a single development cycle of the competition.”
“That feels pretty scary. But you also know that you still have plenty in the tank,” he says. “It’s just a matter of time before we bring our parts to the track.”
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“Our strategy is simply to stay ahead and ensure that the next performance boost we deliver restores the previous state – so brings back all the good things we brought at the start of the season.”
“We just have to endure these scary moments now, when the others bring all their fancy new parts.”
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