Hamilton: Allison’s return as technical director will “solely strengthen” Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton is happy with Mercedes’ determination to return James Allison to the function of technical director in a straight swap with Mike Elliott.

Mercedes confirmed final week the 2 most senior members of its technical group have exchanged roles.

Allison, who joined Mercedes in 2017 as its technical director and remained in that place till 2021, has returned to the function. He has swapped locations with Elliott, who took over as technical director when Allison grew to become chief technical officer in 2021.

Having dominated the seasons which adopted the introduction of the game’s V6 hybrid turbo laws in 2014, Mercedes has suffered a downturn in efficiency in current seasons. It received an eighth consecutive constructors’ championship in 2021 however Hamilton was narrowly crushed to the drivers’ championship by Max Verstappen in controversial circumstances.

Mercedes produced a strikingly unique design when F1 launched new technical laws for the 2022 season. However the automobile proved unsuccessful, the group spent a lot of the yr labouring to work out why it didn’t carry out as anticipated, they usually solely scored a single win on the penultimate race.

The group remained trustworthy to its ‘zero sidepod’ design this yr, however when the season started it found it had fallen additional behind world champions Pink Bull. Early within the yr Mercedes accepted it must change points of its design philosophy as a way to turn out to be aggressive.

Allison’s return to the function of technical director will transfer his focus extra onto their present automobile. He had beforehand invested extra time into getting ready for the subsequent technology of F1 guidelines that are resulting from arrive in 2026.

Hamilton, who hasn’t received a race since December 2021, believes the group’s change on the prime of its technical division is the best transfer.

“James has all the time been part of the group, clearly he was targeted somewhat bit on one other space earlier than,” he mentioned in immediately’s press convention on the Baku Metropolis Circuit. “Having him step again in to assist and work alongside Mike I believe is simply going to strengthen the group shifting forwards.”

Allison, who’s 55, had two stints every at Ferrari and Renault (the latter additionally competing as Lotus and Benetton throughout his time) earlier than he joined Mercedes.

“He’s clearly obtained an incredible quantity of expertise,” Hamilton continued. “So I believe shifting forwards it’s simply going to be nice for the group. Significantly with all of the issues we wish to obtain, not solely on-track however off-track, I believe it’s going to be good.

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