Mercedes’ struggles seem to continue, and there is a lot of shuffling in their technical staff to find better solutions. The car they built last year did not win much but managed to keep them tight with the top contenders. But the upgradation of the same car, W14, is much slower than last season. And within three races of the 2023 season, the staff has realized that they are going to have a tough time ahead. And it seems technical minds have made a shift in their positions on the team.
James Allison, after 20 months, is back in the Technical Director role, and Mike Elliot will take the Chief Technical Officer role behind the scenes. And these changes are supposed to bring back the glory that Mercedes might be willing to regain. Last year Mercedes had a lot of trouble with the car as it was bumping all over the place. This year they managed to fix it, but in exchange, they made the car much slower than the last year. Bad news for the drivers who are finding it hard to compete on the tracks with their fierce competitors.
Why Changing Technical Role Will Help
Mike Elliot has been with the team for a long time, and his contributions have helped the team a lot, dominating F1. However, his role as Technical Director did not do him any good as his skillsets did not work optimally in that position. So he began talking about the problem to James Allison, who joined the team in 2017. James was the TD earlier, and he moved from that position to CTO so that he could spend more time with his family. And he enjoyed his current job, which involved keeping track of future plans for Mercedes rather than anything immediate.
However, when Allison came to him looking for the solutions to his problems, it did not take much time for James to say yes. They immediately pushed the issue to Toto Wolff and made the necessary swap for them to be more competitive at their jobs. This would result in less of a blame game and more work for the company staff. According to Toto, “With James, we have a gladiator on the field, and the troops are going to go through the fire for him and with him.”
What Is Next For The Mercedes?
Elliot will involve himself more in Mercedes ‘ long-term plans, like a revised engine and 100% sustainable fuels. Moreover, he will also take on more duties so that Allison can have more headspace to work on the car with laser focus. On paper, it looks like a fair trade, but only the results will tell the difference created by the swap.
As of now, Mercedes will not have much hope for the season. But at the same time, they would not want to completely fall out of proportion this year as well. However, their complete focus will be regaining that top spot for 2024.
