James Allison admitted Mercedes AMG Motorsport were aiming for more from the Belgian Grand Prix, but they cannot be displeased with finishing with both drivers on the podium on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished second and third respectively at Spa-Francorchamps, both behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Allison feeling the Monegasque racer was ‘a bit too good’ for them across the weekend as he secured his maiden Formula 1 triumph.
Allison felt Mercedes gave it their all throughout the race, and although Hamilton was able to finish within a second of Leclerc, it was never going to be enough to deny Ferrari their first win of 2019.
“We’d hoped for better but it would be churlish not to be happy with a very solid second and third place and all the points that they bring for us,” said Allison.
“Charles was out of touch yesterday in Qualifying and, although it looked for a short while as if we would have him in our clutches today, he was just a bit too good over the race for us over the race distance.”
Allison says there was plenty of reasons to be satisfied with their result in Belgium, with tyre degradation less than their main rivals and strong performances through the corners, all of which will bode well for the team for much of the rest of the season.
“There were a lot of reasons to be happy about our car performance today: it ran nicely on its tyres, with less degradation than our major competitors and performed strongly through the corners,” said Allison.
“So, looking forward from here to the circuits that are ahead of us, Monza is not going to be an easy one but the tracks after that we can look forward with a degree of confidence.”
