‘He is not involved’: Toto Wolff clarifies Mercedes role

Rumours had suggested that James Allison had returned to active involvement at Mercedes

Toto Wolff has clarified that James Allison is not actively involved in Formula 1 with Mercedes after rumours the engineer was back with the team.

It had been suggested that Allison, a long-time technical director in the sport with Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes, may have been called back into the fold after a mixed start to the new F1 season.

The 55-year-old was appointed as technical director at the team in 2017 before being elevated to the role of Chief Technical Officer of Mercedes AMG two years ago.

Allison had latterly moved over to Ineos, part owners of Mercedes, and their sailing programme, working as technical lead as Ben Ainslie and his crew target America’s Cup success next year.

Wolff has now moved to clarify that while Allison does have some oversight over the team’s long-term strategy, he is not part of day-to-day operations, with the Mercedes team principal stressing that their “difficulties” are bigger than any one individual can solve.

“He is not involved,” Wolff confirmed to Motorsport.com when asked about Allison’s involvement.

“He plays an active role when long-term team strategies are discussed, but nowadays he devotes his time to other activities such as the America’s Cup project and other programmes aimed at innovation.

“James is still very important to our organisation. But in terms of the difficulties we have, I don’t think it’s a question of one person, as much as finding more of the right people in the roles we need.”

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell curently occupy fourth and seventh place in the season standings respectively.

The former showed promise in Melbourne, coming home second behind Max Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix, but Mercedes look some way short of Red Bull’s qualifying and race pace.

The F1 season continues at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on the last weekend in April.

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