Who is James Allison, the technical director with a new Mercedes contract?

James Allison, technical director at Mercedes' Formula 1 team, has extended his contract for several years. A significant move for Mercedes, but who is the man labelled by team boss Toto Wolff as the "very best technical leader in F1"?

James Allison started with Michael Schumacher in F1

James Allison's career started at Benetton's team in 1991, where he worked with Michael Schumacher. A promotion to Larrouse's team followed when they were looking for someone to head the aerodynamics department there. Allison moved over but soon returned to Benetton when it didn't work out at Larrouse. He returned to work as an aerodynamics designer at Benetton in the mid-1990s. 

Holding that position saw Schumacher win the world title in 1994 and 1995 before getting promoted to Head of Aerodynamics. In 2000, however, the Brit departed for Ferrari to continue working with Schumacher as a trackside aerodynamics specialist. The Scuderia's successful years demonstrate that Allison knows what he is doing.

James Allison from Ferrari to Renault

When Ferrari's success ended, Renault's success started. James Allison became deputy technical director of the French team in 2005. A few years later, Allison could call himself full technical director. Even when Renault stopped and Lotus took over, Allison was the man who oversaw all technical matters within the racing team.

Allison back to Ferrari as technical director

Nick Chester was the man to take over that baton from 2013 when Allison moved to Ferrari, not as an aerodynamics specialist but as chassis technical director and later general technical director. Under his leadership, Ferrari managed to fight their way back to the top of the field after struggling in previous years.

Allison filled that role until 2016 before leaving the top motorsport class for a few months for private reasons. The return followed in 2017 when Mercedes announced that Allison would assume the technical director role from that season. At the Silver Arrows, Allison fulfilled his role superbly, and Mercedes managed to secure the title year after year.

James Allison and swap with Mike Elliott

In April 2021, Allison was appointed chief technical officer at Mercedes and of the Ineos Team UK Britannia's America's Cup team. Mike Elliott took his place as technical director. Everything turned upside down for Mercedes. The team won the constructors' title but missed out on the world drivers' title after a blistering battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. New rules and new chances came in 2022, but that did not work in the German racing team's favour. In 2023, Toto Wolff's team did not manage a turnaround either, and no victory was achieved for the first time in years.

After the first F1 race of 2023, the Bahrain Grand Prix, team boss Toto Wolff decided that Mercedes needed to change course. The concept of the W14 was not working and was not going to work. Allison returned to his old position of technical director, again swapping places with Elliott. The latter left the team at the end of 2023.