James Allison has recently opened up on the incident that shattered the confidence of Mercedes. Pointing out Lewis Hamilton’s title loss in 2021, the technical director of the Silver Arrows revealed that it hit the core of the team and “fragmented” them more than it was expected.
Speaking about this, Allison said in a report published by FormulaPassion, “I think we entered these destructive dynamics when we lost the title in 2021 and the team fragmented more than it should have.” Hamilton arrived in Abu Dhabi on that day in the quest for his record-breaking eighth world championship.
However, it was not his day to win as he lost the title on the very last lap of the season. This wasn’t something Mercedes saw coming, and therefore, it resulted in huge disgruntling within the team. Soon after, Allison left his role and the team fell into a real slump.
However, the higher management of the German team brought back Allison to his role and the Briton is doing everything he can to bring the side back to their glory days. This includes looking at everything in the team and not just the nuts and bolts.
How is Mercedes preparing to get back on track?
As Mercedes did not have the season they wanted in the last two years, they replaced Mike Elliot with James Allison. Allison has been in charge of this post in the Silver Arrows for a long time and has also helped them win multiple titles.
Now, with him back on the side, he has taken up a crucial role. Speaking about the same, he said, “I tried to get the main engineers who lead the main divisions of the company to talk to each other more, to try to take some of the pressure off. This has been my job since I came back to fill the role of technical director.”
Over and out. Thanks Abu Dhabi for a great end to the season pic.twitter.com/zkIJHPxVGV
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) November 27, 2023
2024 would be a test to see how well can Allison help Mercedes discover more pace. While the team will hope to close the gap to Red Bull, challenging the Milton Keynes outfit for the title would be a very tall order.