Mercedes‘ technical director James Allisson insisted the team has lots of room to improve after Lewis Hamilton led a one-two FP2 of the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix.
However, he doused expectations ahead of qualifying after a strange Friday in Canada where the afternoon session was rain-affected and FP1 only saw three minutes of live running.
“I think there’s plenty more to improve on your car before we get to qualifying,” Allison told Sky Sports F1. “The car is in okay shape, but it’s not deserving of a one-two, because we just weren’t running on track at the same time.
“Thinking that this rain was coming a little sooner than he came, we ran a long run at the beginning of the session and short runs at the end.
“Everyone else did it vice versa, so we were doing our short runs when the track was at its fastest.”
After a torrid start to the 2023 season, Mercedes recorded just their second double-podium since before the 2022 summer break at the Spanish GP.
George Russell was able to comfortably hold off Sergio Perez in the closing stages as Mercedes left Barcelona looking the clear best of the rest team behind Red Bull.
However, Allison doesn’t expect that to translate to Canada, despite their impressive FP2 showing.
“George did his lap and said it didn’t feel very good, and Lewis was impeded on his fine final corner. So there is more, but people shouldn’t underestimate the effect of the track improvement” Allison said.
“What we did to move the car a bit forward in Barcelona, was mostly at the high and the medium speed part of the car and we’ve still got significant things to improve on the low speed.
“This track is mostly about going round slow speed corners in good order.”
Mercedes expecting dry Canadian GP
It’s expected to be a wet Saturday – similar to 2022 when Fernando Alonso landed his Alpine on the front row of the grid – with Sunday’s forecast unclear.
However, Allison poured more cold water on hopes of a cold downpour for the grand prix, after torrential rain fell on the top of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to end FP2.
“It’s going to be a dry race, we think, we’ve got to get there first, but generally speaking, it’s been okay,” Allison added when asked how the W14 handled in the wet.
