Mercedes Undergoes Huge Changes As Technical Director and CTO Swap Roles
Only a few weeks have passed since we reported on rumours of a major change coming to the Mercedes camp, and today, Autosport has reported that they are indeed true. The Brackley squad is exchanging their technical director Mike Elliot for their current chief technical officer (CTO), James Allison, in a bid to improve the development of their W14 contender.
Allison only strayed to the role of CTO a mere 20 months ago, but since then, Mercedes has struggled with establishing a car good enough to place them reliably at the front of the grid. Focussing on the wrong "zeropod" concept, the team battled porpoising last year and are still lagging behind the likes of Aston Martin and Red Bull this year, albeit after announcing they'd made a mistake.
Because of these issues, Elliot has admitted that this is what's best for the team.
Discussing the subject, Toto Wolff talked to Autosport:
"This was very much driven by Mike Elliott owning the process," the Mercedes chief admitted.
"So, we have reversed the roles. Mike has moved up to CTO, as he has a brilliant switched-on scientific mind. And James Allison has returned to his technical director position, reporting in to Mike."
With this change, Elliot will be taking on a full-time role as CTO, whereas Allison was a mere 3 days per week. And according to Wolff, it was Elliot who initiated this exchange.
"Mike came to the conclusion that the way he approaches things, his skill set, is best utilised in developing the organisation going forward: from technical capabilities to human capabilities and putting together the structure that can be successful for many years to come.
"It's about creating a structure that can be sustainably successful going into the next generation. We're seeing huge changes in the technical developments, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
"And at the same time, looking at how is a modern Formula One team going to be organised and structured: what kind of innovation can be brought in."
He continued:
"And I'm actually very happy that Mike took this decision by himself to put himself in this role, with both him and James coming to this conclusion, as we are having both of them in their genius."
On top of this, there are other major changes coming to the Mercedes, with roles being more focussed on a single subject:
"John Owen as the chief designer had a very different job profile under the cost cap because, in addition to the creative part of designing a car, you have a tonne of extra work that comes with it.
"What happened is that the chief designer became a cost cap administrator.
"So, we've split the role. John stays as the chief designer, but we have mandated [his deputy] Giacomo Tortora to become the engineering director.
"It means John can concentrate on the specifics of the car design, and Giacomo looks after the design office, and the organisational development."
With Wolff being a businessman over anything else, it's no surprise that his way of fixing things involves altering the organisational structure itself. With this more defined focus on operations, changes will likely be seen from Mercedes . And Allison, who showed huge success for the constructor in the hybrid era, will hopefully bring the victory they're so wanting.