James Allison has expressed his perspective on the recent departure of employees at Mercedes.
Mercedes’ James Allison has said recent staff departures are part of the regular ebb and flow of a team’s ecosystem.
The squad from Brackley is currently facing challenges in their pursuit to extract more speed from the stubborn W15. Additionally, they are also undergoing personnel changes during this period.
Mercedes part ways with aerodynamic chief
Ferrari has officially announced the appointment of Loïc Serra as the new head of their chassis performance engineering department, just before the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Serra, who served as the performance director at Mercedes for more than ten years, will now join the Italian team.
Jerome d’Ambrosio, previously seen as a potential successor to Toto Wolff, has left the Mercedes team due to personal reasons. Over the past two years, d’Ambrosio led the Mercedes driver development program before relocating from the UK back to Europe.
D’Ambrosio has since signed with Ferrari to act as deputy team boss under Fred Vasseur, as well as heading up the Scuderia’s driver academy.
Both individuals departed from Mercedes earlier this year and will commence their employment with the Maranello-based team in October 2024.
During the Imola weekend, Mercedes announced their separation from Gioacchino ‘Jack’ Vino, the chief aerodynamicist. Vino has commenced a period of six months of gardening leave from the team.
Mercedes’ technical director, James Allison, addressed the media at Imola, reassuring them that despite the departure of notable personnel and the addition of engineers from different teams, there is no need to hire new skillsets.
“No, I think it’s more in the normal ebb and flow of an F1 team,” he said in Friday’s team personnel press conference.
“The teams are big these days and, in any given year, you are shipping out a whole bunch of people and shipping in a matching number. That will be true in nearly every team.”
More on the latest Mercedes F1 news:
Mercedes release W15 aero chief Gioacchino Vino after six-year stay
Revealed: Lewis Hamilton picks his number one choice to replace him at Mercedes
When asked about his concerns regarding the team’s increasing number of departures and the reasons behind them, Allison reassured that the rate at which new hires are being made is matching the rate of separations.
“I don’t think there’s any point in me offering a commentary on motivation,” he said.
“Clearly, a team needs to have a critical mass of experienced and good people. And we would not wish to see experienced good people leave us.
“But we also are gathering experienced and good people at a similar rate. So I guess it’s our job to try and make sure we act in such a way that everybody would rather be with us than anywhere else.”
Allison is relying on his extensive experience and expertise to navigate through the challenging initial phase of the 2024 season with the mysterious W15. As the technical director of Mercedes, he is taking charge of redirecting the team’s development strategy after Mike Elliott’s influence on the previous two years’ designs.
Acknowledging the challenge of achieving success at the present moment, he confessed that he is not finding the situation enjoyable. However, he is eagerly anticipating the gratifying moment when everything falls into place.
“I don’t think it’s any more difficult for me than it is for all of us in the team,” he said.
“It’s always tough when a car isn’t where you want it to be. And that is not an enjoyable situation. On the other hand, once you do start to get your head around it and start to move it forward, that then becomes extremely pleasurable.
“So hopefully we’ve got the worst of the grim feeling behind us and are now on the upward slope of that.”
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