Change on the way at Mercedes? 'Familiar face back at F1 team'

The Italian branch of Motorsport.com reports that Mercedes is to make a major change to the team's structure. Former technical director James Allison would be brought back to the team to solve Mercedes' recent problems.

Allison's CV is particularly impressive: from 2000 to 2004, he was head of aerodynamics at Ferrari and had a major role in the design of Michael Schumacher's car. In 2005, he moved to Renault to take up the position of head of technical development during the years Fernando Alonso won the title with that team. After several years holding various positions at Lotus and Ferrari, he joined Mercedes as technical director in 2017. Partly due to his design, Mercedes' car was absolutely dominant in the following years.

Change of guard in 2021

Allison moved to Mercedes Motorsports' sailing department in 2021. His replacement within the F1 department was Mike Elliott, who was put in charge of designing the 2022 car (a project that had already started under Allison in 2020). The car proved to be quite a miss: Mercedes took just one win last year, and although the team was regularly at the forefront, it was rare that Mercedes could compete for wins.

The opening 2023 race suggests that Mercedes missed the mark again this year. Not only did the German team have to beat old rivals Ferrari and Red Bull, Aston Martin was also able to compete with Mercedes. This would reportedly be the last straw and Allison will be brought back to be more concerned with the design of the car. The changes to be made by Allison would be deployed from the Imola Grand Prix on May 21.