Rumor: James Allison being brought back to Mercedes team (Update)

–by Mark Cipolloni–

While this rumor is upgraded to ‘fact’, it is not what all the Mercedes fans were hoping – that James Allison would come back to save the day.

Toto Wolff has moved to clear up the role of James Allison at Mercedes after talk that he had returned to the F1 side of the business.

Asked how involved Allison is with the F1 business, Wolff replied: “He is not involved.

“He plays an active role when long-term team strategies are discussed, but nowadays he devotes his time to other activities such as the America’s Cup project and other programs aimed at innovation.”

“James is still very important to our organisation,” Wolff stated. “But in terms of the difficulties we have, I don’t think it’s a question of one person, as much as finding more of the right people in the roles we need.”

–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.