Mercedes chief warns 'envious' rivals as Lewis Hamilton plans to leave in 2024 for...

Mercedes chief technical director James Allison believes that the team’s operation and driver line-up is enough to make rivals ‘envious’, with hungry F1 duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell bidding to close the gap on Red Bull and mount a serious challenge for the top prizes in 2024

All bar one Grand Prix win last season went to Red Bull as Max Verstappen dominated the rest of the field to clinch his third consecutive Drivers’ Championship. Hamilton, meanwhile, went the whole year without a victory for the second campaign running.

But Allison believes that the seven-time world champion, along with team-mate Russell, is more than capable of challenging Verstappen if Mercedes put their heads together and produce a competitive car during the off-season.

“They need us to provide them with the equipment,” Alisson told Sky Sports. “Lewis has proven seven times that he’s world championship material. And he was the highest-scoring non-Red Bull driver this year.

George has made one or two errors in the year but equally you’ve seen very strong performances from him in a number of races. It’s been quite a good learning experience for him in his second season with us. I’m certain that both men with the right equipment could be world champions if they fought hard and well enough.”