Mercedes leadership changes won't harm 2022 chances - James Allison

Mercedes

Mercedes leadership changes won't harm 2022 chances - Allison

Allison will step aside as technical director, with Mike Elliot taking over

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Monday 26 April 2021 09:30

Mercedes technical director James Allison has played down suggestions the timing of his imminent departure from the role could hurt the development of next year's car.

Due to the significant aerodynamic changes being introduced for 2022, Mercedes has already placed a large focus on its new car despite the current season being just two races old.

Although leaving his current position, Allison is not leaving Mercedes and will instead take up a newly created position as chief technical officer.

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When asked if the timing of the change could pose problems for the development of next season's car, Allison quipped: "Well, we have to explain it to the world at some point.

"Mike [Elliot] doesn't take over until the middle of the year but he has been ably assisting me in aspects of the technical director role for many, many months and it is just a continuum that will now happen between now and July.

"I hope I will be a useful person for him to chat with on the outside, ears off thereafter. I don't think it is awkward because you've got to understand the quality of people we have in the team.

"Mike is a fearsomely good engineer and is one of a group of people who have really built the foundation on which these championships have been won."

Allison joined the team in 2017 after a stint with Ferrari, overseeing four of the seven championships won by Mercedes in the turbo-Hybrid era.

Looking back to when he joined, Allison praised the quality of the technical core and insisted the team was in good hands moving forward.

"One of the things I noticed as soon as I joined this team is there is a layer of people within the team of extraordinary quality that have been working together with each other for a number of years," he added.

"They enjoy working together and formed a core of our performance development, each of whom knows that they bring a lot to the table but collectively they bring something absolutely magical to the table.

"Those people are still very much there and doing the things they did before and Mike was one of them. Mike worked very well with that group so no, I don't think it is awkward at all and I look forward to seeing Mike stretch his wings."