Was Mercedes’ pace expected in Australian F1 GP? James Allison gives his verdict

After the first two races of the season, Mercedes had a much better performance during the 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix. The car certainly had a better racing pace and was better in terms of competitiveness.

James Allison, the chief technical officer of Mercedes, revealed that the team was expecting this performance in Australia. The team wasn't as slow as they were thought to be, and Allison feels that although the team was performing better in comparison to the top teams, it wasn't quite different to the rest of the field.

When asked about the performance expectations in Australia, he said:

"That’s always a very difficult question to answer. Was it expected? Broadly yes, because the performance level in Australia was not markedly different to that in the other two tracks so far this year. Different yes to Red Bull, but not a completely different animal compared to the rest of the field."

Mercedes' improvement could be seen from the very start of the race after George Russell, who qualified P2, pulled away fast enough to be ahead of Max Verstappen, who was on pole. Unfortunately, his car had issues on the 17th lap and had to retire from the race.

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Allison feels Red Bull's relatively 'off' form in Australia impacted Mercedes and the rest of the field

Red Bull were relatively a little weaker in Australia than they were during the first two rounds of the season, and it was quite apparent. However, Max Verstappen was still fast enough to win the race.

Allison is of the belief that because of the form Red Bull had in Melbourne, the field was much closer together instead of the domination that they had been displaying. He stated:

"I think the biggest shift in Australia was that Red Bull were a little bit more off form in qualifying compared to the rest of the grid, and that sort of closed up the field. But if you look at the relative pace of our car to the Ferrari, our car to the Aston Martin, it's been close-ish all year and yes, we are a little bit on the better side, but it wasn’t seismic."

It is quite clear from Allison's statement that though the team has developed further than how they were two rounds back, there is still a lot of development that remains on the W14. It has been speculated that the team will see a change in the design concept of the car, which could include the design of the sidepods for better aerodynamic stability.

While this year does not look like one for a battle fight for Mercedes, their current competition on the grid can be narrowed down to Aston Martin, who have been quite amazing, and Ferrari.