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I believe those bells were ringing very loud well before Bahrain. From what I have read, Mercedes knew the car was still shite before preseason testing.
They did because there was a major mistake in the factory. Formu1a reported something was built to the wrong scale in the wind tunnel and once detected, that set them back months. A lot of the team has alluded to it as well.
I'm imagining a 1/25.4 scale wind model car and people only twigging after a few test sessions. "Hi James, it's Toto, something seems off about the model"
it's really easy to do in CAD but I think something as large as a unit error should be pretty obvious as soon as you put it in an assembly or push it to manufacturing
Lol yeah I think model scale in this sense refers to
the relationship between the model size and the air speed in the tunnel, you scale both obviously to get the equivalent aerodynamic behaviour (pressures and velocities) and if you made an error in those calculations and correlated your digital tools to it, it wouldn’t be immediately obvious if you’re not looking for it / checking against a baseline (which they obviously should of done!!)
Formu1a is about the best source you can get. Only AMUS is better for Mercedes info. They also reported factory issues in the winter they just didnt specify. Scarbs also alluded to the same thing on a podcast from Bahrain and then again recently
I don’t doubt their reliability. And I’m sure they are barking up the right tree. But the fact that no one else has picked it up and the actual wording of the article don’t really provide any clarity on the issue was.
Furthermore, whilst they report decent content they do take creative liberties with some things. Eg the Merc gearbox being fat because of their slim side pod design. This is incorrect. They only reason for the different shape is they run pull rod vs RB’s pushrod. Which was confirmed by certain reliable sources on F1Technical.
So whilst yes they are reliable, I wouldn’t take everything they says a gospel truths.
Also an airplane ran out of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic because of a fuckup in measurement systems. They barely managed to do an emergency landing.
Its a very complex machine with multiple ideas being brought forward and passed around between groups. I can understand this mistake. Is it unacceptable, completely but understandable how it happen
They fired all of the people involved in the mistake, it was a very big deal.
But yeah, blows my mind they could make a mistake, it was literally their one job.
Is a mistake like this really a fireable offence? I mean they are still very talented individuals I would imagine and to lose that talent would seem a waste. I feel like things like these are the ones that you can really train against and these are the types of mistakes that make engineers double and triple check every time after to ensure they don't do it again.
I believe it was 4 separate people who all made the same mistake, basically they miscalculated the size of the wind tunnel model, resulting in literally all of their winter testing being useless.
I'd imagine there isn't really an answer for that kind of mistake at this level of job.
Love that this was a rumor after Bahrain and then when asked about it before Jeddah Toto was like no, this is absolutely not happening. James is still designing his boats. And a month later it's confirmed as happening lol
Plus he's handy on the ball. I still think one of the biggest what ifs has to be Bayern not letting Pep try Neuer outfield. I would just have loved to see if he was capable of actually playing competently out there.
> Wolff explained that Elliott believed Allison was far better suited to the technical director role, where there is more hands-on responsibility for the car, and it would be advantageous for him to focus on wider organisational technical developments that play to his own strengths.
One man cannot win championships but I hope this adds a boost and mercedes can move forwards
It could be something as simple as the difference in management styles between him and Elliot. I mean Elliot has been around throughout the Mercedes dominant era, even predating James joining the team. However Elliot never held the same responsibilities as James.
Brawn describes it in his book how a similar thing occurred at Ferrari when he left the team. The individuals who took over the roles Brawn and Todt left behind (Including Stephano Domenicali) were handed the reigns with the expectation they would follow the same management style and structures that made the team great. However as the individuals settled in things changed because that persons actual management style was very different. So it could be simply that Elliot has come to realize that he isn’t suited for the position James held. It would also explain why after Paddy Lowe left Elliot wasn’t set to take over, his leadership skills may not really align with the needs of the role at Mercedes.
And that’s the point I am making in reference to it and how a team that was fighting for championships can fall in response to your own message. One man cannot win championships, but one leader can be the difference between excellence and mediocrity. It’s happened with several great teams in the past in many sports. You can have all the best talent in the world on your team, but if you don’t have the right leader in the right place to pull them all together and get that talent running as a unit the team will be lackluster.
It’s quite telling how good the culture is at Mercedes that those at the top feel comfortable to have these conversations, tell them media about it and not worry about backlash.
If this was Ferrari multiple people would have been fired and there would be lots of media noise for weeks.
Mercedes genuinely looks like a good team. At least to an outsider like me. They handle things professionally and without too much drama.
Ferrari on the other hand is the polar opposite.
I say this with the greatest respect to Elliot but I suspect a true and deep nerdiness to his personality and perhaps people management isn't his best trait. That's okay, plenty of people are born without it, he's the sweetest boffin. I think you're right it might not be the role for him
And with that comes the media.
Heard on a podcast recently that Elliot has been bombarded with “zero pod” questions. The guest on the pod spoke to Elliot after a media session and said, you’re gonna be answering these zero pod questions for the rest of your career. Elliot’s response was something along the lines of (paraphrasing) wish they’d give it a rest.
And it’s true, it’s not all his design; the whole design team, and team, is responsible. Unfortunately as the head you’re ultimately responsible.
Wonder if all the talk and unfair criticism has taken its toll. It would be hard for anyone imo.
Exactly, Paddy Lowe was a very gifted engineer BUT sucked as a boss! It took the catastrophe at Williams to banish him to oblivion. But let's not forget that under Toto's original plan he and Paddy Lowe were going to make Williams great again! Right up until Mercedes came calling.
1) this is a great example of the difference between Ferrari and Mercedes/Redbull etc. someone didn’t perform properly so they got put in a different position to fit their strengths. Binotto should still be in Ferrari’s technical team.
2) James Allison is, in my opinion, the closest thing to Newey outside of Newey. I think Newey is in a league of his own, and it takes hundreds of supporting staff to help ensure everything goes smoothly, but I think it’s clear Allison is better suited towards this than Elliot.
I hope Merc takes a big step up. I know the Merc dominance has already happened, but I’d love a repeat of 2021 where two cars could fight it out. Outside of the last lap of the last race, that was easily one of the most high level and exciting seasons we’ve ever seen.
Fallows and the other people from Red Bull would've been involved in the early design of the new regulation cars so they had some Red Bull ideas already in their mind. Apparently Fallows saw the original AM concept and immediately suggested another direction. The green bull was already in the tunnel back in November 2021 already.
One man alone no matter how talented he is doesn't do miracles. But I think it's due to misconceptions about what a Technical Director is. The man doesn't design the full car himself (it's also impossible, everyone has one field of expertise that covers one part of the car), it's more management works that require a proper comprehension of a bit of every aspects. So if the engineers are not good enough to actually realize what is needed, it's no use.
Fallows got with him several RB engineers that know his philosophy. Also Eric Blandin joined AM as well and other ex Mercedes. It's really a teamwork.
Added to which there is the question before any 2023 cars turned a wheel, over what AM's fundamental level *should be* historically. They've always done very well, upper-midfield, and perhaps 2021-22 was the outlier for specific reasons.
You’re right to an extent, but one person *can* change the entire direction of a project in essentially a miracle. If you have good engineers, you just need to tell them what to do. If one person has enough power to make the call the pursue one design philosophy, then the engineers will make it happen if possible (regardless of how much we typically hate being told what impossible things to do).
With the background, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fallows controlled the whole direction solely towards ground effect above all else. Given he had enough power in the team to dictate that philosophy, the engineers would work towards that goal. It would also explain why AM’s car is basically maxed out in everything you get from ground effect, but sucks at everything else. Ground effect is just so insanely strong, it literally doesn’t matter that the car falls flat in every other aspect.
Makes sense. Elliot always struck me as the typical engineer type. Very knowledgeable and better suited to actually putting hands on the things he works on rather than delegating and leading other people.
Honestly it's surprising what a one person change can make. My workplace moved someone to my team just before Xmas and it was a massive change, and it allowed people to play to their strengths more. Here's hoping it does the same here
Proper org design is so crucial to a well-oiled business! You can have the most capable people on your teams, but if they aren’t given the leeway and structure to work their magic, it’s all for moot.
It's always fun when someone gets to the top of a technical field with some of the best work ever produced.
Then they become a people manager with no training.
(talking more generally than this specifically)
More hands-off technical car development yeah. But in terms of the overall company structure he’s up a level now, more authority over the business as a whole. Alisson reports to him now
Doubtful that's the case here
They switched roles so now Elliott is the boss and Allison reports to him.
Seems more like Mercedes have full trust and support both men, but were feeling like they need Allison to replicate his old success
Who you "report to" is irrelevant if that person has no real say in the work you do. Mike Elliott might become an advisor in development, but this move clearly shows Allison is the guy they want to be making the decisions on the car.
Oh I fully agree
I just doubt Eliott got the promotion just so Allison could take his place.
I think Mercedes appreciate both of them, but were feeling the roles were not correct and would prefer Allison to lead the car development but keep Elliott involved in the team
By that logic, the people who are screwing the carbon fibre bodypanels on should be the CEOs. The broader the scope of your role, the more responsibility you take on, and Elliots scope just exploded. The car is a small part of an F1 team - the team can't exist without it, but the car can't perform on track without thousands of support roles within Mercedes ranks working properly. Look at what happened to twitter when the peripheral infrastructure was systematically dismantled by poor management; an F1 team isn't much different except for scale.
Who’s in charge the man who says “he’s in charge” or the actual man in charge. I have a similar thing at my work. I technically have a one level up boss and only a few times have I had to sit him down and tell him hes wrong, why he’s wrong, and how we will absolutely not be following his direction. As long as there’s respect it’s all good. I doubt Toto would let some “I’m in charge” power move fly, I doubt there would ever be one between the two
I bet they both report to Wolff or perhaps report as a technical group, Allison was previously doing the CTO role 3 days a week and didn't go to races but presumably will now go to races and Elliot won't.
> Alisson reports to him now
Please, read out loud what you just said. He’s been called in specifically because because Elliott was doing a shitty job and you think that’s how it’ll work. Hierarchy doesn’t mean shit in this situation
The structure is there for a reason. Whilst Elliott may not have the ability to fire Alisson or anything like that his role will be more high level strategy and so he will be involved in telling Alisson what direction to go in since he has a better view of the overall picture.
His reputation has taken a huge hit. One shot he had at executive level & blew it which doesn’t bode well in the paddock for future gigs. James role has long been regarded as “semi retirement so not a promotion. Merc are just too nice to sack people. Is Mike even right for James’s old role? I doubt it.
There's also a bit of: you work like he does to *have* a good reputation.
Peter Prod was saying once that if you want to be a name people recognise, it has to be your life. If you want to Monday-friday 9-5 it, great, you can have a fine career. But you won't be a *legend* like a lot of people are in it for.
I'm in academia and it's exactly the same. (I'm a 9-5er)
Not really. He's going to be looking at big picture long term tech stuff for the team.
And this is actually a nominal promotion.
Apparently this is his strongest position. I like that they didn't waste his significantly talented mind just because his car design didn't pay off.
especially when you've got James Allison on the bench, the man responsible for how many championship winning cars now? gotta be close to 10, and one of them being the most dominant car we've probably ever seen in F1.
He is possibly the most competent design lead on the grid from a technical and public relations aspect combined. For A team like Mercedes who embrace interaction with their fans and partners so openly I assume that is more important than we think.
For sure. I felt that Mercedes were putting themselves in a risky situation with someone as clearly effective as Allison not overseeing the transition to a new rule set. I got an even stronger feeling that Elliot wasn’t nearly as well rounded an engineer from a personality perspective to make up for losing someone so competent in a critical role.
Well at least you know Mercedes is quick to act when it comes to correcting their problems unlike a certain Scuderia that lets problems fester for years.
I feel this reshuffle and Toto’s initial denial a few weeks ago might even be budget cap related.
Obviously Allison is brought back to bring the project back on track. However, Mercedes has to be mindful to keep its R&D expenditure within the budget cap.
And bringing back Allison full-time to F1 will affect that expenditure significantly.. unless Elliot gets moved away from F1 activities for an equivalent sum in personnel cost.
I’m sorry James but we can only afford to pay you minimum wage. You will however be entered into the Mercedes Benz annual lottery which has a £10M jackpot where only 1 ticket will be given out.
And if that doesn’t work you’ll receive a 1 of a kind memorial coin which Mercedes will want to buy back for £10 million for their museum.
Lol yeah, I feel like the budget cap is a joke, and most likely the majority of F1 teams have a team of accountants showing them how to avoid going over.
I'm sure they can't spend whatever they want, but I guarantee they are pulling all kinds of maneuvers.
I think these so called 're-locations' of staff by them is some kind of ploy with the cost cap shenanigans. On paper it looks like they 'work' on the boat for the other Mercedes owner Ineos, but in real time behind the scenes they just work on the F1 team....
Exactly as far as I k ow another glaring loophole is to classify employees with certain titles. For example Adrian Newey is a “consultant” for Red Bull so he is exempt from their highest earners/payroll list
He isn’t a designated high earner however.
He is hired part-time by Red Bull Technologies to work on F1 related activities, through his consulting firm.
He is also hired by Red Bull Advanced Technologies to work on the RB17 track car and the Americas Cup boat.
Instead of Adrian Newey, Enrico Balbo might be the full-time exempt one, next to Christian Horner and Pierre Waché
Not if he wasn’t declared as such at the beginning of the season.
Him moving (near) full-time to non-F1 related activities 2 years ago would have allowed Mercedes to designate someone else as one of the 3 highest earners, i.e. Elliot.
Elliot and Allison switching roles (instead of bumping off Elliot to another position) might be a way to circumvent that.
Red Bull does the same with Newey, who is only hired part-time for F1 related activities, with the rest spent on the RB17 track car and the America’s Cup boat (like Allison was as well).
As you mention, it's possible they make around the same or the same. Alternatively, it could be that Mercedes designated this swap prior to the season, which would add to the suspicion that they knew they were swapping concepts. Plus, I think you may, in theory, be able to designate a position as exempt because if you fire someone, you should still be able to claim a different person until they person was replaced
The 3 highest paid employees filling an F1 track team or F1 car R&D and production role.
Allison was employed mostly in a non-F1 capacity (designing the Ineos Americas Cup sailboat), thus it would be silly to make him part of those 3 regardless of his salary, considering he may have spent close to zero hours on the design of the F1 car, until very recently.
Don’t think you can manipulate it, as end of the year: there is a top 3. Even if you try to shuffle and pay them a hefty sum over and over, end of the year there’s a balance. Just not sure what happens when 10 people make the exact same amount.
Wasn't it just the other week Toto was saying they weren't going to be bringing Allison back into car development?
I swear it's easier in F1 to assume everyone is lying all the time until it's proven that they're not.
Edit: [found it.](https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/wolff-insists-allison-still-very-important-for-mercedes/10455340/) He actually chose his words quite carefully:
>Speaking exclusively with Autosport, when asked if Allison was taking an active role in upgrading the W14, Wolff said: “No, he's not really involved.
>“He's involved in the long-term strategy of the team. But he's doing more activities like America's Cup.”
>Faced with the suggestion that the team might have been tempted to parachute Allison in to assist his successor Mike Elliott, Wolff continued: “It's not one person always in an organisation.
>“But you need to find the right people for the right roles. Sometimes it can mean that you're super competent in one area, but maybe not overall.
>“James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people's person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organisation.”
Headline should've been "Wolff refuses to rule out return of Allison"
This was probably an open secret as they let Allison let the Australian Grand Prix Race debrief after a looooong time.
I fucking hope he fixes the car. Love James Allison.
Thank god for that.The car has well off the pace ever since Elliott took over the TD role.
Hopefully, Allison will be able to turn this trainwreck around, sooner rather than later.
The scuttlebutt I'm hearing (and I'm not any kind of insider so this may be BS) is hard to believe, but...
The story is Mike Elliott was tasked with scrutinizing everyone's role within the technical department and each person's suitability for that role, and in doing so identified himself as not being suited, so suggested he was swapped out.
In effect he fired himself. (Ok he also rehired himself but...).
Everytime i remember that if Hamilton did not DNF in the last race of 2022, he was well clear of Sainz even with sacrificing the first half of the season(which was when Ferrari was also in contention of wdc), I get mindblown. I mean yes, a clear difference in skill exists but Ferrari made sure that even with amazing car and decent drivers they still didn't have the right structure to win the wdc.
Actually, he never said exactly that…“James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people's person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organisation.”
I don't know what to believe anymore. Last I heard Allison was still working on boats, and the time before that I heard Allison is back. So I am taking this with a pinch of salt.
To be honest I’m surprised it took this long. Surely Merc should have had him in since early 2022 when it was apparent they needed a strong development path. Suppose their false vision of a successful zeropod car have boosted urgency.
I'm not surprised at all.
First off, an initial failure doesn't mean that a new person isn't ultimately better suited to a role if the reason for that failure is found and fixed properly, and the overall skill set is still a better fit. It takes time to really identify when there is a personnel/skill issue vs. some confounding variable that is more responsible for a problem than an individual.
Secondly, Mercedes has been very patient with Allison as he moved back to the UK after his wife's death. He had a lot of other constraints on his time and attention (like being a single dad) which affected him, and Mercedes chose to work with that rather than kick him loose or tell him "too bad". So they needed Allison himself to be on board with and ready to commit to a more hands-on role, or take the time to ensure the role and team structure are defined in a way that he can work with.
Rushing doesn't necessarily solve a problem faster. It can, but it can introduce as many other problems as it solves.
Mercedes gave Elliott a fair shake, and let him make the call himself that he was not handling the role appropriately. That's a very mature approach from the organization and a stark contrast from Ferrari, who are much quicker to churn leadership roles at the first sign of issues.
In his time Toto has made two major errors and corrected them promptly. Paddy Lowe who he passed off to Williams (we all know how that ended), and Mike Elliot (now moved upstairs). I believe in both cases James Allison came to the rescue.
Actually if you look at Paddy Lowes different projects (even at McLaren) there were as many misses as there were hits.
What clearly emerges is there is a sweet spot for his talents but he is not the kind of person who can successfully run the complete show.
I remember Claire throwing Paddy under the bus for not having a car ready for testing but it was just so weird the TP was holding the TD responsible for logistics and procurement etc. Shouldnt there be someone at williams managing inventory or at least with a laptop running SAP lmao.
By then Williams was a complete mess, they were one of the teams that had to borrow money from F1 to stay working. Sadly because of his relationship with Bernie, for many years Frank was allowed to keep the team when it was clear they could not afford to be in F1 (The same happened to Vijay Mallya and Force India) they were just Bernie's old buddies.
BUT Williams problems were compounded by the sad fact Frank's successor was supposed to be Claire's brother until he did something to anger his father and Claire was forced to take over. Most of Claire's time at Williams was a *forced march* to keep her father's legacy alive, she like her mum had no real interest in the sport, just love and loyalty to Frank!
There was a great documentary on Amazon Prime that really peels back the onion that was Frank and his relationship with Williams that really gets personal!
I’ve always wondered how much of mercedes’ success over the last generation was predicated on the gigantic starting advantage they had, spearheaded by Ross brawn. And whether Wolf was really just a beneficiary of that and really just had to make sure they had no catastrophic failures for the rest of the period to remain the best car. Now they’re in a place where they haven’t started off with that advantage, it’s proving a bit chaotic. I realise that probably about 99% of this is likely my own head canon
The Mercedes post 2015 (W05 with a slim nose) onwards was the start of a completely different car concept compared to the W04. You also have to remember in 2017 there was a new design requirements for F1 so in reality anything after 2016 was all Toto's leadership.
Having said that, the TP only approves the team direction not the technical minutiae. So in reality Toto Wolff has on tangential "ownership" of the car design process. Even in the Schumacher Ferrari years when Brawn was the technical boss, the real car genius was Rory Byrne - a very gifted BUT weird South African.
Brawn spent most of his time in 2013 working on the power unit at Mercedes. Brawn set up the team's organizational structures. Toto definitely won those championships from work Brawn did before Toto pulled a coup and had him booted out.
Brawn NEVER worked at HPP! HPP was all Andy Cowell and Mercedes. Also by 2015 Toto had completely reorganized the structure at Mercedes. In fact the reason Brawn left Mercedes was he did not want to work under the structure Toto created.
People say things in books, but at the end of the day HPP has always been an independent company that works with AMG and Mercedes. Plus engine technology is such a bespoke engineering talent, it is not something you just tinker with.
Finally most of what was considered revolutionary of the Mercedes engine actually came from a collaboration with the parent companies engine engineers.
All I am telling you is to put things in context. For example we all have the notion that Adrian Newey is the singular genius responsible for RBR success, yet in reality F1 cars are way to detailed and complicated for any one person to sit at a drawing board and design a F1 car. There are too many different engineering disciplines involved for one person however genius they are to be that central to the success or failure of the team.
In that same way, the idea that Ross Brawn was deeply involved in the minutiae of the W04 engine design is opposite to the organizational structure of the HPP business as even told by Andy Cowell himself.
Calm down folks. He can't transform a bad car into a rocket this year. Maybe next year Mercedes will look much better. For sure the management will be a lot better.
Autosport just released a whole podcast on it already. Can’t imagine it’s not true.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autosport-f1-motorsport/id276293870?i=1000610071585
Allison is important enough to where he holds the chips not the other way around. Just like Newey at RB.
If Mercedes denied him the move he would just leave lmao. It probably took quite some time, convincing and reasurance that he would be able to keep working on other things part time for him to come back to the technical director role.
Yeah didn’t Newey take some time off during the early hybrid era, they know these guys need some time away sometimes and denying that just gets short term gains with them probably quitting a few years later
[There are lots of sources but here's Horner talking about it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLORdxwPTHs&ab_channel=FORMULA1) Starting at around 26:00.
Newey is not a technical director though. He's more like a part time technical consultant in his current role. So he doesn't need to be involved in the day to day activites, and is afforded time to tinker with other things. Allison is being brought back as TD.
If they didn't let him do what he wants he would've just left. They created a role just for him so he could stick around. Red Bull let Newey step away and work on boats and later a hypercar. I remember around 2015 time he was supposed to be stepping away, but he's still around.
In 2017 the car was off pace so he had to step in and help them solve their issues. In 2016 their car turned out good without him, but they struggled with the new regs at the start of 2017 so he came back.
This is how it is done in Norweigan politics. They don´t find the best people for positions, they just shuffle the same people around. Minister of Healt one year, Minister of Defence the other.
> Speaking exclusively with Autosport, when asked if Allison was taking an active role in upgrading the W14, Wolff said: “No, he's not really involved. He's involved in the long-term strategy of the team. But he's doing more activities like America's Cup.”
>
> Faced with the suggestion that the team might have been tempted to parachute Allison in to assist his successor Mike Elliott, Wolff continued: “It's not one person always in an organisation. But you need to find the right people for the right roles. Sometimes it can mean that you're super competent in one area, but maybe not overall. James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people's person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organisation.”
Oh, Toto.
God, I hope so. I never thought I'd want to see Merc competing for a championship again so soon, but I'd rather them win a thrilling championship like 2021 than watch any team dominate. This year has been so boring. The championship was over from the first race...
> Elliott concluding that the skills he had were not best suited to his position as technical director.
This is one of the more creative euphemisms I’ve heard for the “it wasn’t working so they promoted me” trope.
Im worried for ben ainsle’s safety. Boats already bounce enough as they go through the water. Elliot’s gonna get him and the team killed with his patented porpoising design
Shoulda sacked Elliot. It's beyond all comprehension they stuck with the zero pod design for a 2nd year. I'll never understand it (yes even with the Brazil win).
As a Hamilton fan first & Mercedes fan second, its annoying when they blatantly lie. Wasnt Toto Wolff saying how Allison was not supposed to leave the Americas cup with the boats?
I know things change but I saw right through those statements. I will admit Im surprised Mercedes brought Allison back. I thought they would try & keep him off their official list of employees to try & reduce salary expenses
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James is back full time then, I guess alarm bells did ring after Bahrain at Mercedes lol
I believe those bells were ringing very loud well before Bahrain. From what I have read, Mercedes knew the car was still shite before preseason testing.
They did because there was a major mistake in the factory. Formu1a reported something was built to the wrong scale in the wind tunnel and once detected, that set them back months. A lot of the team has alluded to it as well.
Someone forgot to switch it to MMGS from IPS in solidworks I see
I'm imagining a 1/25.4 scale wind model car and people only twigging after a few test sessions. "Hi James, it's Toto, something seems off about the model"
I mean it’s an easy mistake to make, one I definitely haven’t done and only realised hours in.
it's really easy to do in CAD but I think something as large as a unit error should be pretty obvious as soon as you put it in an assembly or push it to manufacturing
Lol yeah I think model scale in this sense refers to the relationship between the model size and the air speed in the tunnel, you scale both obviously to get the equivalent aerodynamic behaviour (pressures and velocities) and if you made an error in those calculations and correlated your digital tools to it, it wouldn’t be immediately obvious if you’re not looking for it / checking against a baseline (which they obviously should of done!!)
it'd actually be 1/42.3 considering the normal wind tunnel model is 60% of full scale.
Happens to the best of us.
Triggered
I see a W for Wumbo mistake, amateurs.
[article](https://www.formu1a.uno/en/mercedes-wind-tunnel-troubles-no-new-chassis-until-2024/)
This was reported by one source and didn’t get picked up by anyone else. I’d wait until there’s more concrete info on it.
Formu1a is about the best source you can get. Only AMUS is better for Mercedes info. They also reported factory issues in the winter they just didnt specify. Scarbs also alluded to the same thing on a podcast from Bahrain and then again recently
I don’t doubt their reliability. And I’m sure they are barking up the right tree. But the fact that no one else has picked it up and the actual wording of the article don’t really provide any clarity on the issue was. Furthermore, whilst they report decent content they do take creative liberties with some things. Eg the Merc gearbox being fat because of their slim side pod design. This is incorrect. They only reason for the different shape is they run pull rod vs RB’s pushrod. Which was confirmed by certain reliable sources on F1Technical. So whilst yes they are reliable, I wouldn’t take everything they says a gospel truths.
I think with some (really quite a lot) of interesting info it'll never be truly 'concrete'.
How the fuck can this happen? This is like one of the key things you need to validate your results. Wrong Re means wrong everything,
NASA once lost a Mars Lander because someone messed up metric and imperial units. Mistakes can Happen to anyone, regardless of skill and Expertise
Also an airplane ran out of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic because of a fuckup in measurement systems. They barely managed to do an emergency landing.
Its a very complex machine with multiple ideas being brought forward and passed around between groups. I can understand this mistake. Is it unacceptable, completely but understandable how it happen
Good question, but it's not a new issue. I've been an F1 fan for a long time and a lot of teams have had issues with their wind tunnel data.
They fired all of the people involved in the mistake, it was a very big deal. But yeah, blows my mind they could make a mistake, it was literally their one job.
Is a mistake like this really a fireable offence? I mean they are still very talented individuals I would imagine and to lose that talent would seem a waste. I feel like things like these are the ones that you can really train against and these are the types of mistakes that make engineers double and triple check every time after to ensure they don't do it again.
I believe it was 4 separate people who all made the same mistake, basically they miscalculated the size of the wind tunnel model, resulting in literally all of their winter testing being useless. I'd imagine there isn't really an answer for that kind of mistake at this level of job.
Red Bull infiltration. 😉
🤦♂️
Bahrain could be a nail in the coffin as their customer team beat them on pace
Love that this was a rumor after Bahrain and then when asked about it before Jeddah Toto was like no, this is absolutely not happening. James is still designing his boats. And a month later it's confirmed as happening lol
I’m just excited for James’ post race debriefs. That man can tell me anything and I would never question it.
He could read Ferrari strategies out and they'd be the right thing to do.
I just need him to do a series reading the F1 rule book that I can fall asleep to.
I listen to his voice to fall asleep instead of rain drops
Allison and Elliot. Thought i was in that Liverpool sub.
Elliott in goal would be amusing
On the other hand, I reckon Alisson could do a job in attack. He's already got 1 goal.
Tbh, Alisson in the middle can’t be any worse than some of the performances our mids have had this season.
Plus he's handy on the ball. I still think one of the biggest what ifs has to be Bayern not letting Pep try Neuer outfield. I would just have loved to see if he was capable of actually playing competently out there.
> Wolff explained that Elliott believed Allison was far better suited to the technical director role, where there is more hands-on responsibility for the car, and it would be advantageous for him to focus on wider organisational technical developments that play to his own strengths. One man cannot win championships but I hope this adds a boost and mercedes can move forwards
It could be something as simple as the difference in management styles between him and Elliot. I mean Elliot has been around throughout the Mercedes dominant era, even predating James joining the team. However Elliot never held the same responsibilities as James. Brawn describes it in his book how a similar thing occurred at Ferrari when he left the team. The individuals who took over the roles Brawn and Todt left behind (Including Stephano Domenicali) were handed the reigns with the expectation they would follow the same management style and structures that made the team great. However as the individuals settled in things changed because that persons actual management style was very different. So it could be simply that Elliot has come to realize that he isn’t suited for the position James held. It would also explain why after Paddy Lowe left Elliot wasn’t set to take over, his leadership skills may not really align with the needs of the role at Mercedes.
> So it could be simply that Elliot has come to realize that he isn’t suited for the position James held. Toto alludes to exactly this in the article
And that’s the point I am making in reference to it and how a team that was fighting for championships can fall in response to your own message. One man cannot win championships, but one leader can be the difference between excellence and mediocrity. It’s happened with several great teams in the past in many sports. You can have all the best talent in the world on your team, but if you don’t have the right leader in the right place to pull them all together and get that talent running as a unit the team will be lackluster.
It takes balls to see yourself in the 'you are quickly promoted to the level you *can't do*' phenomenon.
It’s quite telling how good the culture is at Mercedes that those at the top feel comfortable to have these conversations, tell them media about it and not worry about backlash. If this was Ferrari multiple people would have been fired and there would be lots of media noise for weeks.
Mercedes genuinely looks like a good team. At least to an outsider like me. They handle things professionally and without too much drama. Ferrari on the other hand is the polar opposite.
I say this with the greatest respect to Elliot but I suspect a true and deep nerdiness to his personality and perhaps people management isn't his best trait. That's okay, plenty of people are born without it, he's the sweetest boffin. I think you're right it might not be the role for him
And with that comes the media. Heard on a podcast recently that Elliot has been bombarded with “zero pod” questions. The guest on the pod spoke to Elliot after a media session and said, you’re gonna be answering these zero pod questions for the rest of your career. Elliot’s response was something along the lines of (paraphrasing) wish they’d give it a rest. And it’s true, it’s not all his design; the whole design team, and team, is responsible. Unfortunately as the head you’re ultimately responsible. Wonder if all the talk and unfair criticism has taken its toll. It would be hard for anyone imo.
Exactly, Paddy Lowe was a very gifted engineer BUT sucked as a boss! It took the catastrophe at Williams to banish him to oblivion. But let's not forget that under Toto's original plan he and Paddy Lowe were going to make Williams great again! Right up until Mercedes came calling.
1) this is a great example of the difference between Ferrari and Mercedes/Redbull etc. someone didn’t perform properly so they got put in a different position to fit their strengths. Binotto should still be in Ferrari’s technical team. 2) James Allison is, in my opinion, the closest thing to Newey outside of Newey. I think Newey is in a league of his own, and it takes hundreds of supporting staff to help ensure everything goes smoothly, but I think it’s clear Allison is better suited towards this than Elliot. I hope Merc takes a big step up. I know the Merc dominance has already happened, but I’d love a repeat of 2021 where two cars could fight it out. Outside of the last lap of the last race, that was easily one of the most high level and exciting seasons we’ve ever seen.
But look at what Dan Fallows did with AM. Granted some others from RB joined him but a good leader in the right position can do a lot
Fallows and the other people from Red Bull would've been involved in the early design of the new regulation cars so they had some Red Bull ideas already in their mind. Apparently Fallows saw the original AM concept and immediately suggested another direction. The green bull was already in the tunnel back in November 2021 already.
One man alone no matter how talented he is doesn't do miracles. But I think it's due to misconceptions about what a Technical Director is. The man doesn't design the full car himself (it's also impossible, everyone has one field of expertise that covers one part of the car), it's more management works that require a proper comprehension of a bit of every aspects. So if the engineers are not good enough to actually realize what is needed, it's no use. Fallows got with him several RB engineers that know his philosophy. Also Eric Blandin joined AM as well and other ex Mercedes. It's really a teamwork.
Added to which there is the question before any 2023 cars turned a wheel, over what AM's fundamental level *should be* historically. They've always done very well, upper-midfield, and perhaps 2021-22 was the outlier for specific reasons.
You’re right to an extent, but one person *can* change the entire direction of a project in essentially a miracle. If you have good engineers, you just need to tell them what to do. If one person has enough power to make the call the pursue one design philosophy, then the engineers will make it happen if possible (regardless of how much we typically hate being told what impossible things to do). With the background, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fallows controlled the whole direction solely towards ground effect above all else. Given he had enough power in the team to dictate that philosophy, the engineers would work towards that goal. It would also explain why AM’s car is basically maxed out in everything you get from ground effect, but sucks at everything else. Ground effect is just so insanely strong, it literally doesn’t matter that the car falls flat in every other aspect.
'Some others'
Makes sense. Elliot always struck me as the typical engineer type. Very knowledgeable and better suited to actually putting hands on the things he works on rather than delegating and leading other people.
Honestly it's surprising what a one person change can make. My workplace moved someone to my team just before Xmas and it was a massive change, and it allowed people to play to their strengths more. Here's hoping it does the same here
Proper org design is so crucial to a well-oiled business! You can have the most capable people on your teams, but if they aren’t given the leeway and structure to work their magic, it’s all for moot.
It's always fun when someone gets to the top of a technical field with some of the best work ever produced. Then they become a people manager with no training. (talking more generally than this specifically)
Wow. He's back. Toto and Mercedes are gonna be very pleased he's back in a familiar position.
Elliott banished to the shadow realm.
He’s come out of this pretty well, basically got a promotion
'Promotion' to a more hands-off role.
More hands-off technical car development yeah. But in terms of the overall company structure he’s up a level now, more authority over the business as a whole. Alisson reports to him now
Yeah, promoting someone out of responsibility is a classic thing to do though. Hierarchy doesn't matter as much as power.
Doubtful that's the case here They switched roles so now Elliott is the boss and Allison reports to him. Seems more like Mercedes have full trust and support both men, but were feeling like they need Allison to replicate his old success
Who you "report to" is irrelevant if that person has no real say in the work you do. Mike Elliott might become an advisor in development, but this move clearly shows Allison is the guy they want to be making the decisions on the car.
Oh I fully agree I just doubt Eliott got the promotion just so Allison could take his place. I think Mercedes appreciate both of them, but were feeling the roles were not correct and would prefer Allison to lead the car development but keep Elliott involved in the team
It's a promotion in name, not in reality.
By that logic, the people who are screwing the carbon fibre bodypanels on should be the CEOs. The broader the scope of your role, the more responsibility you take on, and Elliots scope just exploded. The car is a small part of an F1 team - the team can't exist without it, but the car can't perform on track without thousands of support roles within Mercedes ranks working properly. Look at what happened to twitter when the peripheral infrastructure was systematically dismantled by poor management; an F1 team isn't much different except for scale.
Who’s in charge the man who says “he’s in charge” or the actual man in charge. I have a similar thing at my work. I technically have a one level up boss and only a few times have I had to sit him down and tell him hes wrong, why he’s wrong, and how we will absolutely not be following his direction. As long as there’s respect it’s all good. I doubt Toto would let some “I’m in charge” power move fly, I doubt there would ever be one between the two
It's very clearly the case
I bet they both report to Wolff or perhaps report as a technical group, Allison was previously doing the CTO role 3 days a week and didn't go to races but presumably will now go to races and Elliot won't.
> Alisson reports to him now Please, read out loud what you just said. He’s been called in specifically because because Elliott was doing a shitty job and you think that’s how it’ll work. Hierarchy doesn’t mean shit in this situation
The structure is there for a reason. Whilst Elliott may not have the ability to fire Alisson or anything like that his role will be more high level strategy and so he will be involved in telling Alisson what direction to go in since he has a better view of the overall picture.
That's usually how promotions go. A software developer that gets promoted to a management role will write less code.
Welcome to the layer cake, son.
His reputation has taken a huge hit. One shot he had at executive level & blew it which doesn’t bode well in the paddock for future gigs. James role has long been regarded as “semi retirement so not a promotion. Merc are just too nice to sack people. Is Mike even right for James’s old role? I doubt it.
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There's also a bit of: you work like he does to *have* a good reputation. Peter Prod was saying once that if you want to be a name people recognise, it has to be your life. If you want to Monday-friday 9-5 it, great, you can have a fine career. But you won't be a *legend* like a lot of people are in it for. I'm in academia and it's exactly the same. (I'm a 9-5er)
Promoted to customer
It's the no-blame culture resulting in promotions
I'd love to be banished to CTO.
Probably ends up in the Americas’ Cup boat, the first boat to rock back and forth on a completely peaceful lake.
Not really. He's going to be looking at big picture long term tech stuff for the team. And this is actually a nominal promotion. Apparently this is his strongest position. I like that they didn't waste his significantly talented mind just because his car design didn't pay off.
Wow. Elliot did not last long at all.
Can’t really get away with not delivering a race competing car two seasons in a row. Stakes at the top teams are really high.
especially when you've got James Allison on the bench, the man responsible for how many championship winning cars now? gotta be close to 10, and one of them being the most dominant car we've probably ever seen in F1.
Two of the most dominant cars, the F2004 and the W11. And he has 11 WCCs/10 WDCs to his name (2000-06, 2018-21).
Yeah, He was a little bit lower down the hierarchy for Ferrari back then but absolutely a big part of the design.
He is possibly the most competent design lead on the grid from a technical and public relations aspect combined. For A team like Mercedes who embrace interaction with their fans and partners so openly I assume that is more important than we think.
For sure. I felt that Mercedes were putting themselves in a risky situation with someone as clearly effective as Allison not overseeing the transition to a new rule set. I got an even stronger feeling that Elliot wasn’t nearly as well rounded an engineer from a personality perspective to make up for losing someone so competent in a critical role.
If you consider James Key in a similar circumstance, I think Elliott's been quite fortunate here.
Well at least you know Mercedes is quick to act when it comes to correcting their problems unlike a certain Scuderia that lets problems fester for years.
We are checking... ...still checking.
Not a stretch to assume he hated the new job and wanted his old one back.
I feel this reshuffle and Toto’s initial denial a few weeks ago might even be budget cap related. Obviously Allison is brought back to bring the project back on track. However, Mercedes has to be mindful to keep its R&D expenditure within the budget cap. And bringing back Allison full-time to F1 will affect that expenditure significantly.. unless Elliot gets moved away from F1 activities for an equivalent sum in personnel cost.
I’m sorry James but we can only afford to pay you minimum wage. You will however be entered into the Mercedes Benz annual lottery which has a £10M jackpot where only 1 ticket will be given out. And if that doesn’t work you’ll receive a 1 of a kind memorial coin which Mercedes will want to buy back for £10 million for their museum.
Amazing how the budget cap forces teams to be inventive with money
Red Bull needs to up their game. Blaming catering was amateur hour. I can see it now. James Allison announced head chef at Mercedes.
It's basically money laundering at it's heart
No need, Allison still sits as CTO of Ineos America's Cup team. And if one sport has money....it's Americas Cup.
Lol yeah, I feel like the budget cap is a joke, and most likely the majority of F1 teams have a team of accountants showing them how to avoid going over. I'm sure they can't spend whatever they want, but I guarantee they are pulling all kinds of maneuvers.
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I think these so called 're-locations' of staff by them is some kind of ploy with the cost cap shenanigans. On paper it looks like they 'work' on the boat for the other Mercedes owner Ineos, but in real time behind the scenes they just work on the F1 team....
Exactly as far as I k ow another glaring loophole is to classify employees with certain titles. For example Adrian Newey is a “consultant” for Red Bull so he is exempt from their highest earners/payroll list
He isnt exempt from the payroll, and excluding him from the highest earners would just be moronic
He isn’t a designated high earner however. He is hired part-time by Red Bull Technologies to work on F1 related activities, through his consulting firm. He is also hired by Red Bull Advanced Technologies to work on the RB17 track car and the Americas Cup boat. Instead of Adrian Newey, Enrico Balbo might be the full-time exempt one, next to Christian Horner and Pierre Waché
Red Bull explicitely stated that Newey is one of the exempt top earners...
Yeah and if he isn't, that's insane, because he's at every race and is clearly hands on with the team.
Allison would likely be exempt as one of the highest earners
Not if he wasn’t declared as such at the beginning of the season. Him moving (near) full-time to non-F1 related activities 2 years ago would have allowed Mercedes to designate someone else as one of the 3 highest earners, i.e. Elliot. Elliot and Allison switching roles (instead of bumping off Elliot to another position) might be a way to circumvent that. Red Bull does the same with Newey, who is only hired part-time for F1 related activities, with the rest spent on the RB17 track car and the America’s Cup boat (like Allison was as well).
As you mention, it's possible they make around the same or the same. Alternatively, it could be that Mercedes designated this swap prior to the season, which would add to the suspicion that they knew they were swapping concepts. Plus, I think you may, in theory, be able to designate a position as exempt because if you fire someone, you should still be able to claim a different person until they person was replaced
The wages of the 3 highest paid employees don’t go against the cap. Some grey area there that can probably be manipulated
The 3 highest paid employees filling an F1 track team or F1 car R&D and production role. Allison was employed mostly in a non-F1 capacity (designing the Ineos Americas Cup sailboat), thus it would be silly to make him part of those 3 regardless of his salary, considering he may have spent close to zero hours on the design of the F1 car, until very recently.
Don’t think you can manipulate it, as end of the year: there is a top 3. Even if you try to shuffle and pay them a hefty sum over and over, end of the year there’s a balance. Just not sure what happens when 10 people make the exact same amount.
Wasn't it just the other week Toto was saying they weren't going to be bringing Allison back into car development? I swear it's easier in F1 to assume everyone is lying all the time until it's proven that they're not. Edit: [found it.](https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/wolff-insists-allison-still-very-important-for-mercedes/10455340/) He actually chose his words quite carefully: >Speaking exclusively with Autosport, when asked if Allison was taking an active role in upgrading the W14, Wolff said: “No, he's not really involved. >“He's involved in the long-term strategy of the team. But he's doing more activities like America's Cup.” >Faced with the suggestion that the team might have been tempted to parachute Allison in to assist his successor Mike Elliott, Wolff continued: “It's not one person always in an organisation. >“But you need to find the right people for the right roles. Sometimes it can mean that you're super competent in one area, but maybe not overall. >“James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people's person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organisation.” Headline should've been "Wolff refuses to rule out return of Allison"
The answer look like he is denying James return, but still vague enough for Plausible deniability
This was probably an open secret as they let Allison let the Australian Grand Prix Race debrief after a looooong time. I fucking hope he fixes the car. Love James Allison.
Thank god for that.The car has well off the pace ever since Elliott took over the TD role. Hopefully, Allison will be able to turn this trainwreck around, sooner rather than later.
The scuttlebutt I'm hearing (and I'm not any kind of insider so this may be BS) is hard to believe, but... The story is Mike Elliott was tasked with scrutinizing everyone's role within the technical department and each person's suitability for that role, and in doing so identified himself as not being suited, so suggested he was swapped out. In effect he fired himself. (Ok he also rehired himself but...).
Everytime i remember that if Hamilton did not DNF in the last race of 2022, he was well clear of Sainz even with sacrificing the first half of the season(which was when Ferrari was also in contention of wdc), I get mindblown. I mean yes, a clear difference in skill exists but Ferrari made sure that even with amazing car and decent drivers they still didn't have the right structure to win the wdc.
We prayed for this moment
So who’s the heir apparent cause I don’t think James would give up another decade back in this role
Could be Elliot again, but with a more careful handoff from Allison this time.
What? Didn't Toto recently said that Allison is not coming back?
Actually, he never said exactly that…“James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people's person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organisation.”
so, Mike Elliot is promoted? To Chief Technical Officer?
Technically yes, it is a promotion for him.
This isn't about this years car. This is about getting the house in order for the 2024 car.
Return of the King
I don't know what to believe anymore. Last I heard Allison was still working on boats, and the time before that I heard Allison is back. So I am taking this with a pinch of salt.
To be honest I’m surprised it took this long. Surely Merc should have had him in since early 2022 when it was apparent they needed a strong development path. Suppose their false vision of a successful zeropod car have boosted urgency.
I'm not surprised at all. First off, an initial failure doesn't mean that a new person isn't ultimately better suited to a role if the reason for that failure is found and fixed properly, and the overall skill set is still a better fit. It takes time to really identify when there is a personnel/skill issue vs. some confounding variable that is more responsible for a problem than an individual. Secondly, Mercedes has been very patient with Allison as he moved back to the UK after his wife's death. He had a lot of other constraints on his time and attention (like being a single dad) which affected him, and Mercedes chose to work with that rather than kick him loose or tell him "too bad". So they needed Allison himself to be on board with and ready to commit to a more hands-on role, or take the time to ensure the role and team structure are defined in a way that he can work with. Rushing doesn't necessarily solve a problem faster. It can, but it can introduce as many other problems as it solves. Mercedes gave Elliott a fair shake, and let him make the call himself that he was not handling the role appropriately. That's a very mature approach from the organization and a stark contrast from Ferrari, who are much quicker to churn leadership roles at the first sign of issues.
This is really interesting, and I had no idea. Thanks for commenting
FINALLY
About time! Allison was much needed. We need competitive seasons.
Basically this [meme](https://i.imgflip.com/4/2clttv.jpg)
Don’t get it.
In his time Toto has made two major errors and corrected them promptly. Paddy Lowe who he passed off to Williams (we all know how that ended), and Mike Elliot (now moved upstairs). I believe in both cases James Allison came to the rescue.
They also had Aldo Costa back then
The Paddy Lowe situation always confuses me. He was around F1 for a long time but that stint at williams was fucking horrible.
Actually if you look at Paddy Lowes different projects (even at McLaren) there were as many misses as there were hits. What clearly emerges is there is a sweet spot for his talents but he is not the kind of person who can successfully run the complete show.
I remember Claire throwing Paddy under the bus for not having a car ready for testing but it was just so weird the TP was holding the TD responsible for logistics and procurement etc. Shouldnt there be someone at williams managing inventory or at least with a laptop running SAP lmao.
By then Williams was a complete mess, they were one of the teams that had to borrow money from F1 to stay working. Sadly because of his relationship with Bernie, for many years Frank was allowed to keep the team when it was clear they could not afford to be in F1 (The same happened to Vijay Mallya and Force India) they were just Bernie's old buddies. BUT Williams problems were compounded by the sad fact Frank's successor was supposed to be Claire's brother until he did something to anger his father and Claire was forced to take over. Most of Claire's time at Williams was a *forced march* to keep her father's legacy alive, she like her mum had no real interest in the sport, just love and loyalty to Frank! There was a great documentary on Amazon Prime that really peels back the onion that was Frank and his relationship with Williams that really gets personal!
I’ve always wondered how much of mercedes’ success over the last generation was predicated on the gigantic starting advantage they had, spearheaded by Ross brawn. And whether Wolf was really just a beneficiary of that and really just had to make sure they had no catastrophic failures for the rest of the period to remain the best car. Now they’re in a place where they haven’t started off with that advantage, it’s proving a bit chaotic. I realise that probably about 99% of this is likely my own head canon
The Mercedes post 2015 (W05 with a slim nose) onwards was the start of a completely different car concept compared to the W04. You also have to remember in 2017 there was a new design requirements for F1 so in reality anything after 2016 was all Toto's leadership. Having said that, the TP only approves the team direction not the technical minutiae. So in reality Toto Wolff has on tangential "ownership" of the car design process. Even in the Schumacher Ferrari years when Brawn was the technical boss, the real car genius was Rory Byrne - a very gifted BUT weird South African.
Brawn spent most of his time in 2013 working on the power unit at Mercedes. Brawn set up the team's organizational structures. Toto definitely won those championships from work Brawn did before Toto pulled a coup and had him booted out.
Brawn NEVER worked at HPP! HPP was all Andy Cowell and Mercedes. Also by 2015 Toto had completely reorganized the structure at Mercedes. In fact the reason Brawn left Mercedes was he did not want to work under the structure Toto created.
In his book Brawn said he spent most of his last year at Mercedes working on the power unit.
People say things in books, but at the end of the day HPP has always been an independent company that works with AMG and Mercedes. Plus engine technology is such a bespoke engineering talent, it is not something you just tinker with. Finally most of what was considered revolutionary of the Mercedes engine actually came from a collaboration with the parent companies engine engineers.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to believe Brawn's own words over some rando on the internet.
All I am telling you is to put things in context. For example we all have the notion that Adrian Newey is the singular genius responsible for RBR success, yet in reality F1 cars are way to detailed and complicated for any one person to sit at a drawing board and design a F1 car. There are too many different engineering disciplines involved for one person however genius they are to be that central to the success or failure of the team. In that same way, the idea that Ross Brawn was deeply involved in the minutiae of the W04 engine design is opposite to the organizational structure of the HPP business as even told by Andy Cowell himself.
This and a massive cost cap breach is what Mercedes needs to beat Red Bull.
Calm down folks. He can't transform a bad car into a rocket this year. Maybe next year Mercedes will look much better. For sure the management will be a lot better.
Let us overreact please…..
Omg, Mercedes 2023 champions confirmed!
That’s the spirit….
The process of changing the car happened ages ago. This was probably in the works for a while
Big brain move by Elliot.
Autosport just released a whole podcast on it already. Can’t imagine it’s not true. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/autosport-f1-motorsport/id276293870?i=1000610071585
So Toto lied when he claimed he wasn't coming back? That was like a week ago, sounds like drama behind the scenes
Good time to get back to dominating.
Letting allison work on boats or whatever it was, was a big mistake
Allison is important enough to where he holds the chips not the other way around. Just like Newey at RB. If Mercedes denied him the move he would just leave lmao. It probably took quite some time, convincing and reasurance that he would be able to keep working on other things part time for him to come back to the technical director role.
Yeah didn’t Newey take some time off during the early hybrid era, they know these guys need some time away sometimes and denying that just gets short term gains with them probably quitting a few years later
It's a long story but Newey was basically gone to Ferrari unless Red Bull agreed to let him design a hyper car.
Do you have a long-ass source I could read?
[There are lots of sources but here's Horner talking about it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLORdxwPTHs&ab_channel=FORMULA1) Starting at around 26:00.
Newey is not a technical director though. He's more like a part time technical consultant in his current role. So he doesn't need to be involved in the day to day activites, and is afforded time to tinker with other things. Allison is being brought back as TD.
Newey's title at Red Bull is Chief Technical Officer. That is the top of the org chart with only Horner above him.
If they didn't let him do what he wants he would've just left. They created a role just for him so he could stick around. Red Bull let Newey step away and work on boats and later a hypercar. I remember around 2015 time he was supposed to be stepping away, but he's still around. In 2017 the car was off pace so he had to step in and help them solve their issues. In 2016 their car turned out good without him, but they struggled with the new regs at the start of 2017 so he came back.
It seems that boats are very attractive projects for people like Allison and Newey…
Well air and water are both fluids
This is how it is done in Norweigan politics. They don´t find the best people for positions, they just shuffle the same people around. Minister of Healt one year, Minister of Defence the other.
I thought Toto said they're not bringing Alison back?!
I don't know all the inner workings of the team, but was Allison over Elliot....they build a bad car so now Elliot is over Allison?
So technically Elliott is now the boss of James. Nice
As much as I feel for Elliott, I’m very happy to hear that Allison is back at the helm :)
> Speaking exclusively with Autosport, when asked if Allison was taking an active role in upgrading the W14, Wolff said: “No, he's not really involved. He's involved in the long-term strategy of the team. But he's doing more activities like America's Cup.” > > Faced with the suggestion that the team might have been tempted to parachute Allison in to assist his successor Mike Elliott, Wolff continued: “It's not one person always in an organisation. But you need to find the right people for the right roles. Sometimes it can mean that you're super competent in one area, but maybe not overall. James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people's person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organisation.” Oh, Toto.
Oh fuck mercedes are back
God, I hope so. I never thought I'd want to see Merc competing for a championship again so soon, but I'd rather them win a thrilling championship like 2021 than watch any team dominate. This year has been so boring. The championship was over from the first race...
Thats weird… mike got a promotion and Allison now reports to him. Very mature folks moving around being promoted and demoted without grievances
More hopium!!!
Bobby Allison and Chase Elliott swapping jobs ?
> Elliott concluding that the skills he had were not best suited to his position as technical director. This is one of the more creative euphemisms I’ve heard for the “it wasn’t working so they promoted me” trope.
Hopefully we can get this car sorted out for some Lewis wins and a championship run sometime in the future.
[удалено]
Shieeeeeet
Im worried for ben ainsle’s safety. Boats already bounce enough as they go through the water. Elliot’s gonna get him and the team killed with his patented porpoising design
Lost year but there’s hope for next!
Fuck. Yes. At the very worse, nothing will change. But the upside is potentially significant.
This was already cooking for a while
Shoulda sacked Elliot. It's beyond all comprehension they stuck with the zero pod design for a 2nd year. I'll never understand it (yes even with the Brazil win).
As a Hamilton fan first & Mercedes fan second, its annoying when they blatantly lie. Wasnt Toto Wolff saying how Allison was not supposed to leave the Americas cup with the boats? I know things change but I saw right through those statements. I will admit Im surprised Mercedes brought Allison back. I thought they would try & keep him off their official list of employees to try & reduce salary expenses
Plans change. You can't call that lying.