Rumor: James Allison being brought back to Mercedes team

by Mark Cipolloni

Rumor has it that James Allison, who moved to Mercedes Motorsports’ sailing department in 2021, will be brought back to the F1 team to salvage the mess created under Mike Elliott’s design lead.

The 2022 zero pod car was a porpoising disaster, and the 2023 car is an embarrassment to the Mercedes brand, losing 1-second a lap in race trim to the Red Bull car.

The zero pod design may look good on paper, but that does not translate to the race track.

They tried to get Aldo Costa to come back, the man who led the engineering of all the dominant Mercedes years, but he wanted to stay in Italy with his family.