Mercedes are reportedly to call upon James Allison to take the lead in their 2024 Formula 1 car design after their 2023 campaigner had a difficult debut.
The Silver Arrows finished fifth and seventh in the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix while being significantly off the pace of Red Bull which brought pressure onto current technical director Mike Elliott.
The 48-year-old oversaw both the 2022 and 2023 cars being designed and manufactured but neither has lived up to the lofty expectations of Mercedes.
Allison previously worked with Mercedes from 2017 to 2021 and helped them to both drivers and constructors titles in multiple years before choosing to leave prior to the new regulations taking effect.
But Elliott has not lived up to the task and Toto Wolff is ready to bring Allison back with an SOS call for the 2024 campaign, according to the Italian version of Motorsport.com
“We know we don’t have a mechanical problem, otherwise Aston Martin would suffer too, the point is that we go well on the straight but we lose a lot of time in the fast corners,” Wolff said.
Praise for Aston Martin
On the opposite end of the scale, Aston Martin enjoyed a fantastic first race of the season with Fernando Alonso securing a podium and Wolff was full of praise for the Silverstone-based team.
“We can only take our hats off to what they did,” Wolff said. “They gained two seconds in six months and their car is half ours.
“Considering that they use the same gearbox, engine and rear suspension, plus we also share the same wind tunnel. So we just have to recognize that they did a better job than us.”
If there are any positives to take from a disappointing race for Mercedes it’s that they appear to have got on top of the porpoising issues that plagued their 2022 campaign.
