F1 | Mercedes to reshuffle their F1 technical team, Allison to step down from his position
It was announced that Mercedes F1 will reshuffle their technical department, with James Allison, their current technical director step down and move to a new role.
James Allison, who joined the Mercedes team in the beginning of 2017 will become the new Chief Technical Officer from the 1st of July, and from that point he will be involved in long-term strategic planning. Since Allison is stepping down from the technical director role, the person newly appointed for that role will be Mike Elliot, who is the current technology director at Mercedes. Previously he worked with Renault and McLaren, before joining Mercedes in 2012 and moving into his current position in 2017.
This change in the technical team structure can be attributed to the preparation for the 2022 rules change and the team’s long-term planning, rather than the performance of the current car, as pointed out by the Mercedes team.
Allison said he believes it was the right time for him to move into a new position, instead of staying and not letting others in the team grow.
As he said: "I firmly believe that people have a shelf life in senior roles in this sport, and I have chosen to step away from my role as technical director in order to pass on the baton at the right time for the organisation and myself. I have enjoyed four and a half wonderful years as technical director, and it has been a special privilege to lead the technical effort of the team in that time."
Toto Wolff, the team boss of Mercedes said he’s delighted that Allison will remain on board, even though he knew before that the Brit’s role as the technical director would end this year.
As he said: "Since joining Mercedes in 2017, James has been an exceptional technical leader for our team, and he has made an enormous contribution to our performance: he combines huge passion and determination with detailed expertise and exceptional moral character. We have known for a while that his time as technical director would be coming to an end this year and I am delighted that we have been able to shape this new role to keep him within our motorsport family; he will be an important sparring partner for me in the next years and I know that we still have much to achieve together."
