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Ted Kravitz looks at Mercedes’ changes at technical director, where James Allison returns to the role, replacing Mike Elliott
Ted Kravitz looks at Mercedes’ changes at technical director, where James Allison returns to the role, replacing Mike Elliott
Mercedes’ bid to return to being championship contenders again has seen a reshuffle at the top of their technical team.
Just weeks after Toto Wolff said the team needed to abandon their uncompetitive car design, Mercedes confirmed ahead of the Azerbaijan GP that James Allison would be returning to the role of technical director in a job swap with Mike Elliott, who has taken up the position of chief technical officer.
Here Sky Sports F1 seeks to explain the changes at the top of the Brackley-based team…
How did Mercedes get here?
By Mercedes’ high standards the last year and a half has, competitively speaking, been a living nightmare.
The Silver Arrows have seen their utter domination of Formula 1, which brought a record eight consecutive constructors’ titles, ended after they failed to master the sport’s new technical rules.
In the 26 Grands Prix since the new regulations came in at the start of 2022, Mercedes have won just one – George Russell at last year’s Sao Paulo GP.
As well as the rule change, the drop in form coincided with a change in the team’s technical management when long-time technical director Allison was promoted to chief technical officer to allow the team’s highly-rated aerodynamicist Elliott to move up to technical director.
Allison has returned to the role of technical director at Mercedes
Allison had been Mercedes’ technical director from 2017 until the spring of 2021. Under his watch, the Silver Arrows had seen off the title threat of Ferrari in 2017 and 2018 before producing what is regarded as one of the greatest-ever F1 cars, the W11 of 2020.
Meanwhile, Elliott had joined Mercedes in 2012 as head of aerodynamics before moving to the role of technology director in 2017.
But Allison’s promotion to chief technical officer and Elliott’s move to technical director did not work as well as either would have hoped.
Both last year’s W13 and this year’s W14 have been compromised by miscalculations, flawed theories and unexpected consequences.
Elliott moved to the chief technical officer role at Mercedes after determining he was not the best person for the technical director role
Mercedes arrived at the start of 2022 with a unique ‘zero sidepod’ car concept but were one of the biggest sufferers of ‘porpoising’ – bouncing – as they lacked competitiveness.
The improvement towards the end of last year, which included Russell’s win in Brazil, prompted the team to stick with the concept for the W14. However, after just one qualifying session in 2023 Wolff conceded the philosophy would never be competitive enough to fight for championships again and a radical concept change was needed.
Not all of the mistakes were Elliott’s, but he presided over the cars, and in the course of figuring out how they got everything so wrong, Elliott himself concluded he was not the right person for the technical director job.
So, in a job swap signed off weeks ago but only confirmed publicly ahead of the Azerbaijan GP, Allison has returned to the coalface as technical director and will now report in to Elliott, who has been promoted to chief technical officer.
How does that work?
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Allison is excited to return to his former job as Mercedes’ technical director, and explains why he is better suited to this role
Rather than scapegoating Elliott and risk losing him to a rival team, Wolff has delivered on his famous ‘no-blame’ culture at Mercedes and found a position better suited to Elliott’s talents.
Indeed, Wolff told Sky Sports F1 the swap is “putting both of them – Mike and James – in their sweet spot”.
“The technical director is the gladiator on the field who is fighting with his troops,” he added.
“The chief technical officer is on his horse, overlooking the field and giving the strategic decisions and direction.”
Allison went further to say it would be “an act of self-destruction” had Mercedes eased Elliott out of the organisation.
“He and I talked long into the night about this and just reckoned we could do a better job swapped around than we could in our erstwhile role,” Allison told Sky Sports F1.
“Mike is better at thinking long term, Mike is better at working out where the long-term structural weaknesses in the organisation are, in the technologies are. He thinks more strategically than I do.
“I’m a bit more of a blunderer around, of applying lots of enthusiasm in the short term and then relatively good as a hype-man in getting the people in the factory pumped up for a fight.
“Those are the sort of characteristic differences between us which mean I’m possibly a bit more suited to the technical director role which feels the call of the current car much more strongly than the CTO role which is preparing us for the wars to come.”
Among Elliott’s tasks in his new role will be getting Mercedes prepared for F1’s next rules change in 2026 which centres around new engine regulations and a switch to 100 per cent sustainable fuels.
How do Hamilton and Russell feel about the job swap?
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Lewis Hamilton believes the return of Allison to the role of technical director can only benefit Mercedes going forward
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George Russell has welcomed the team’s decision to restore Allison to his previous role
Will Mercedes return to winning ways?
Do not expect an immediate return to the front for the Silver Arrows. Mercedes’ change of direction and upgrade plans for 2023 will have already been set out before the job swap – indeed their first big upgrade will be arriving in two weeks’ time at Imola’s Emilia Romagna GP.
But with the swap happening so early in the year, it allows Allison to have a focus on car design for 2024 as Mercedes will seek to avoid another stuttering start to a season.
He has already ruled out a ‘clean sheet revamp’ for the W15.
“The W13, the W14, 15, 16, 17 to come will be the product of our entire factory and I will be playing my small part in that. I hope to play that part well and hope that being a short-term miller will be useful,” he added to Sky Sports F1.
“In the other part of the company, Mike will be moving the chess pieces around to make sure that over time the organisation just gets stronger and stronger. And collectively him, me and all the rest of us will put together a weaponry we can proud of again.”
If Allison and his team get it right, 2024 is the earliest Hamilton and Russell will have a car capable of challenging for the world championship.
And will Allison’s return to TD affect Hamilton’s contract talks?
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Hamilton says the return of Allison will not affect his contract talks with Mercedes and he describes the team as his ‘family’
While Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes are now in a stronger position following the reshuffle, he says Alisson’s return will not impact his decision on a contract extension with the team.
“It doesn’t change it,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 on his future.
“I mean James was already there, he was in our team already. I’m grateful to know, it gives me confidence we’ve got Mike and James together, but we already had them in the team.
“I think what continues to give me confidence within the team is how everyone stays so focused, everyone’s continuing to push, the energy at the factory is amazing.
“The values in which Mercedes continues to work on representing, presenting everywhere we go, both on track and off track, is I think really inspiring.
“And, yeah, it’s my family.”
The Formula 1 season continues with the Miami GP from May 5-7. Watch qualifying at 9pm on Saturday with lights out at 8.30pm on Sunday. Get Sky Sports
