Mercedes announced today that James Allison will join the team from 1 March 2017.
James is a highly distinguished Formula 1 engineer who has won world championships with both Ferrari and Renault, in addition to holding senior leadership roles in both teams.
James Allison will take the newly created role of Technical Director. He will lead the technical organisation, while reporting directly to Toto Wolff. The Austrian will have overall responsibility for running the team.
James Allison said:
“I am very excited to be getting back to work after this time away from the sport. It’s a massive privilege to be given the trust of a position in a team that has done so spectacularly well in the past three seasons. I am really looking forward to playing my part in helping Mercedes go from strength to strength in the coming years.”
Toto Wolff added:
“I am delighted to welcome James to Mercedes and very much looking forward to working with him. Our technical team is extremely skilled at every level and at the top of its game after delivering three world championships in a row. It wasn’t an easy task to find the right personality who can strengthen our experienced group of engineers, give our talented young team members the space to develop and also bring his own vision to this role. James is a sharp engineer; I think we have found the perfect guy and the right fit with our senior leaders.”
Allison has a degree in aerospace engineering from Cambridge. He joined the Benetton F1 Team after graduating in 1991. Then he became Head of Aerodynamics in Larousse. Later returned to Benetton and taking the same position there in the mid-1990s. Allison moved to Ferrari in 2000. The English designer became the Scuderia’s technical director in 2009. In 2011 and 2012 he was at the same position in Lotus before rejoining Ferrari in 2013. Allison left Maranello last summer.
