P9 and P10 in Suzuka Let’s go team!

I love the fact they even do this is so refreshing that a team even lets us inside where they’ll discuss the process they are going through.

Can we get a James Allison Podcast already? I need more.

Really appreciate the honesty of the first answer, I know I felt the disappointment but I can never quite get my head around how hard it must be at times to keep pushing as a team and crucially as individuals within the team. Low morale sucks and it's pleasing to know everyone finds a way within themselves to get up and keep moving forwards. Happy to hear George is all good too! Great questions, excellent answers. James is very clear and easy to listen to, also a legend. Thank you. Wishing the best to all. ❤💜💙🖤

I watch a race, I get disappointed. I listen to James, I get a bit of hope. I watch another race, disappointment. This cycle is making me numb.

Just wish the team can find the underlying issues and address them throughout the season

I love this team soo much … but I’ve been heartbroken for 3yrs … I just hope we can come back really strong and I think it’s going to take a while to get back on our feet

Removing James 2 years ago has set this team back an entire era

On the "red flag, red flag" question - and I've made the same comment on another video - I was hugely impressed by the calmness his race engineer maintained. I think that providing clear, calm, but also short and digestible messages in such a situation must hugely beneficial. Especially when others around are probably shouting, in GR parlance, "Oh goodness me! What a fix we're in!"

Is it necessary to have the background music?

This is why Merc is so good! Of course winning is what we want to see, but the way the team so transparently pursue F1 perfection is nothing shy of inspirational. Best of luck team!

I can't wait to see the fight for 5th place, keep it up guys😎

To Russel and team: You all need to create a sensor aiming toward the ground and place it at the floor board, etc. When the car is on the side or upside down the sensor will trigger the VSC automatically, since it cannot sense the floor. 👍🏻

Great video, love the honesty and analysis. Let’s get through these tough times together

Keep fighting!

I trust James...he needs time..and dont forget who made the flying W era...specially W11+W12.

Interesting that Mercedes customer cars McLaren and Aston Martin outperformed the factory team!

by the time Merc understand the car, get the regulations right, and have the wind tunnel correlate to the real world data....it would be time for a new set of regulations

Let's go boys...we need to aim for p5 at least in Suzuka... I know u can..

In FP3 the drivers took 3 to 4 laps to bring the tyres up to temperature before doing a hot lap, in qualifying they went back to 1 warmup lap before a hot lap... which didn't work.

Do you have temp sensors on board the car that is dedicated in measuring track temp? I think with ground effect rules, getting track temp precisely is important.

I find these very helpful and I look forward to them. Please drop the distracting background music! I want to focus on the analysis.

‘We’re working on it’ …..

In Japan we will be the 5th best team lol.

Apologies to Mike Elliot Bro was unto something with the zero side pods concept

I agree, a pattern begins to emerge.

04:19 So, too much downforce and stiff suspension makes the tyres warmer. And it's increased by the track temperature also. And the track surface abbrasion is also a factor.

How do you fix George cracking under pressure and complaining of all the time?

I'll be really happy if Lewis at least get one podium in the whole seoson and with this car, that feels like a big win for me

As a McLaren fan, I wish you all the best in diagnosing and remedying the engine issues from Melbourne. :)

y'all choosing to not answer difficult questions is the most cavalier attitude that i've seen from this team that's been progressively getting worse over the last 3 years. with this attitude y'all deserve p5 and below in constructors

I can only imagine what the people working day after day at Brackley and at the factory feel after a tough week-end... Keep going guys dont be discouraged,it will turn around at some point. ❤❤❤❤

I’d love to get a week-long internship in their meetings. How do you face this kind of challenge in a constructive and enthusiastic manner 🤗

*Looking forward to the first upgrades in imola? Hopefully this fixes the problem. If not then 2026 new rules or is it a faulty sim??*

The focus should be on improving the pace but they are now chasing 3 teams, one of which is a customer team

It’s unforgivable that Mercedes hasn’t had a competitive car for 3 years now 😳

The only question we all wanted was "do you understand where the pace is being lossed, and what are you doing to address it?"

I hope you will be able to identify issues, find solutions and improve. Good luck!

Really came to find out what they have to say... I am wondering what if anything they will change prior to 2026 to setup for a better era

Ok...here we go

We need a miracle from James for the next race.

The way Peres pulled away from Lewis was just insane. There is a HUGE gap to overcome.

There will be many driver changes coming up for the 2025 season. We wonder whether a possible option would be George Russel going to Red Bull and Mercedes acquiring Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.

Hope to see some improvement at Suzuka. Even marginal improvements at this point

Excellent material!

If as they say that track temperature is not suitable if it's zusuka will again be a failure for merc as it's expected to be a wet race

Reconstruct the front wing for right airflow to channel through and around the car 🏎️🏎️🏎️because that is the main problem fix it James. We know there’s error in the aerodynamic with in the front wing which is changing the air flow for massive dawn force🕰️🏎️🔥🔥🏆🥇

How has it gone so wrong. 😕

Quali prediction Lewis P12-13 George P8-10

No background music please.

They are no way near fixing their car. Lewis made the right choice.

Better turn the engine up to twenty this weekend cause eleven aint cutting it.

Hmm Glad To See "James" Still Has Something To Smile About, So Things Cant Be That Bad.. Right Guys !?!

James is brilliant we know that, but we can’t expect that after complete change of car concept in the third year of regulations he will be able to create some miracles, it’s too late now unfortunately and we need to remember that he’s not the only person involved in designing, he needs more top engineers to work with and perhaps a new simulator

I find that huge difference in balance and pace between FP3 and Quali, being put down to track characteristics - to be well too big. There must be something totally fundamentally wrong to cause THAT much of a change. You have to feel the team have changed SO much with this car, in responce to the car carrying over into 2025, the public reactions on social media and headlines made by Lewis and Toto - that they have lost themselves with what change has actually created which factor that they are experiencing. There was always going to be teething problems with a brand new concept - it should not be a surprise there are some dips. But when you see how Ferrari have improved, sticking to what they know - without a massive concept change by comparison to Mercedes... you soon realise that the zero-pod concept, was never the problem... A fundamental understanding is missing, but hopefully there is scope to find it this year, so that 2025 is not a continuation of a decline.

Why dose the car feels different from one session to another?

I am a redbull fan through and through, had to deal with mercedes domination and saw what James Allison was capable of. But now I want that innovation to come back and take back the fight, is it possible to close the gap by summer break or isi it already a done deal?

Is the restrictions on budget hampering the team to fix the issues? Or would you still still be struggling to understand that car?

We just gotta keep on pushing guys! 😀

All the best for suzuka!❤

Wasn't Lewis on the hards before he retired? Don't know why James said he was on the mediums

Same Debrief for the past 2 years. They need more personnel changes…they got too many chances to fix the issue and no changes!

At this point with the recent results that merc have giving us fans, I have already given up, this season is going to be just like the last two.

never ending pain :

In James we trust

IN JAMES ALLISON I TRUST!

9:53 , but that's no fun for us viewers at home 😂 , we like to see big plumes of smoke and a few thrown conrods when engine oil pressure drops ;) - seriously this kind of monitoring is why F1 cars are so reliable these days

Remember in the 90's when Williams were champions over n over, then poof! That's merc right now, slowly getting to the back of the pack😢😢

The problem is, this is the third year with a new concept, they NEED time to understand the car, it will be painfull butnthey gotta stick to it, go heads down and keep the concept for next year

3 years has past and Mercedes is still wondering whats wrong with the car, unbelivble 😤

I know it's too late for this podcast, but could Lewis have made it to the box on electric power? I know that this will be a provision in the new Indycar rules for hybrids - the ability to drive a lap on the electric power only. The thinking is that it will cut down on safety car periods if spinners or cars with broken engines can "clear their own yellow flag". Seiko at Suzuka!

Sir Lewis on softs and couldn't pass Yuki

Have a feeling, Japan will surprise us!!!

guys, it's time to admit that you've made a dogs dinner out of these regs.

At no point in any weekend since 21 have you been confident in that car. Sad that merc have turned into a team fighting for the last point paying positions.

We will get out of the mud guys we just have to keep supporting Mercedes.

Bring Back the W13

Let’s hope for some points next time team! P10 at least! You can do it! 😒

At this stage, why don’t we just copy Ferrari side pods design and test if it works for our car. Maybe our way for this ground effect design isn’t as effective unless we go back to zero pods and making it work somehow

1:09 5:42 9:13 9:48 13:23 14:30

i still believe that 2021 was the best f1 season where you never knew who would win a race and they fought it out to the very end of the season and it came down to the very last race, however after that it seem like mercedes have fallen off, i am and have always been the biggest mercedes fan however after 2021 they are just not the same..and f1 has started loosing that appeal because in every race even before it starts you already know the winner and the win will be a very big margin. i just hope the rest of the grid can figure it out and make f1 more exciting again.

A big n so successful team can come to today…..really really disappointed a lot of ppl

I still believe in James Allison words , l can make the car competitive again

These debriefs used to be a good insight into a team that was firing on all six cylinders but as the team's fortunes have declined they have descended into justification as to why they are failing so badly. Reading between the lines they really don't seem to understand what their problems are and how to solve them. As an outsider looking in it is hard to gauge if the people involved are the reason and that they would benefit from some fresh thinking. At the tail end of their period of dominance, there was the feeling that they had become too reliant on the process and the system, their data was driving the decision making which in the past would have been driven by racers with experience and instinct to make the decisive calls, "Why did you not pit Hamilton under the safety car", "The data was telling us that ........". It is reflective in Hamilton deciding to leave, there is the logic on paper and "gut feel", Hamilton's gut feel is probably that Mercedes have lost their mojo, they can have all the meetings they like, discuss it to death, present a united front, but Hamilton is probably not convinced and that Ferrari, even if they prove not to have the answer, will be a different environment. This debrief might have been better had Allison just said, "You know what we haven't a clue at the moment what the problem is, and we are searching for clues and at the moment devoid of ideas." There has been one area that has been really irritating of Mercedes and that is their pit stop timings. Nothing to do with the car, design, drivers, but they have been for a long time now consistently losing a second or two to the other teams. If they are not the quickest, what are they doing about it?

I'm sorry but track temperatures don't cause a deficit of 8 bloody tenths and a knock out in Q2...

They know they'll be belted by fans for their performances. Still they post a debrief video 😂😂😂. Great fan here, difficult times are part of the sport. Get through it and it will be rewarding

James, I'm curious why you and the team were so bullish after testing when the car is evidently worse than last year. Did the track configuration hide its weaknesses?

So glad George is ok and back in the factory. Will Lewis be on the sim too?

If Mercedes performed as well as James spoke then this team would win every week. Unfortunately the teams currently performing like a drunk Glaswegian 😂

Who George is helping ?

I honestly really feel bad for Lewis. After losing a shot at his 8th title, he has had a slow car ever since. Lets see if that changes when he goes to ferrari

3 years of 'We don't know why the car sucks." Genuinely sucks to be an engineer in such a situation.

This feels less race debrief and more racing podcast.

It seems strange to me why there is any struggle to understand redbulls downforce in corners and pace on straights, they are using the cars own heat or exhaust to provide downforce. There's no other way they can have that much grip in cornering and low drag on the straights unless the car generates its own downforce that they can adjust. What boggles my mind is why other teams haven't managed to catchup, they did something very similar in 2005.

I liked the last season short videos debrief rather than waffling for 20 mins about how bad you are

Toto may need to step aside, and hire a different Team Principal. He has done great things for the team, but the recent performance points the need for a change. From a fan.

James, you where our only hope 😢

Bro just got outclassed by newey during this generation of cars.

Coming to rescue Mercedes after 2 failed years is bad.. Alittle too late for the new rules..hence toto shud be fully blamed for trusting in Mike after lewis insisting the concept is off.. Hence toto benefited for a star engine and design from this man to look good during the glory years.. Mercedes need a Horner now..

Mercedes current result is to be expected. They have a new platform this season. That means the team is still trying to learn more about it, and the drivers are still trying to adapt to how it handles, with Russell bringing in better results than Lewis (who seems to suffer yet again from adaptability/confidence issues). Another main thing to consider is that their rivals (Ferrari and Mclaren) made a substantial leap in performance (which is to be expected because they already had an entire season last year to understand their car better).