The current generation of Formula 1 cars was originally designed to allow drivers to follow each other more closely on track, thereby enhancing wheel-to-wheel battles and overtaking opportunities. However, according to Mercedes’ technical director James Allison, the reality has shifted drastically. Formula 1 has become, in his words, a “tyre formula”—one in which the single most crucial factor for success is the ability to operate the Pirelli tyres within their optimal temperature window.
Not by chance, one of the standout teams of the 2025 season—the McLaren team—has demonstrated exceptional performance in this very area. Their MCL39 thrives particularly in high-temperature conditions, managing to keep the tyres alive and productive while other teams suffer from overheating and rapid degradation. For Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, this reality has proven to be a persistent challenge, one that has puzzled even their most experienced and successful engineers.
James Allison, the 57-year-old former Ferrari engineer who moved to Mercedes in 2017 and helped shape some of the most dominant cars in the sport’s history, addressed the issue in a recent interview with German publication Auto Motor und Sport. He candidly admitted that understanding tyre behaviour under the current regulations has become the most complex and frustrating puzzle of this ground-effect era in Formula 1.
“We’re in a kind of yo-yo situation,” explained James Allison. “There are weekends when we win races on merit, and others when we perform very poorly—like what happened in Austria and at Silverstone. And you don’t need to be a technical expert to realise that this World Championship heavily favours those who are able to control tyre temperatures best. And that’s certainly not us.”
The technical director then outlined why the current formula makes the task so difficult compared to previous eras. “Two factors have combined to make things harder than before,” Allison noted. “The first is the restriction on pre-heating tyres, which has been limited significantly. The second is the nature of ground-effect cars, which generate far more lateral load on the tyres during high-speed corners, resulting in greater thermal stress.”
Complicating matters further is the fact that current regulations severely limit the amount of tyre testing teams can perform. “The rules don’t really allow us to properly understand the tyres,” Allison added. “We’re barely allowed to test them, and the only real chance we get to observe and learn their behaviour is during race weekends—but even then, we have a thousand other things to focus on.”
In summary, James Allison made it clear that in modern Formula 1, tyre management—particularly thermal management—has become the key to success, and Mercedes is currently not among the teams mastering this skill.
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