After speculation heated up last week, James Allison has left Ferrari by mutual consent.
The English designers place in the team had been in doubt for a while now after Ferrari’s poor start to the season. Wednesday morning it has been announced that Allison’s 3 year spell at Maranello was indeed coming to an end. His contract ran until the end of 2017. It a short statement announced by the team, the two parties ended terms by mutual consent.
Ferrari team boss Arrivabene said:
“The team would like to thank James for his commitment and sacrifice during the time spent together, and wishes him success and serenity for his future endeavours.”
Allison himself added: “During the years I spent at Ferrari, at two different stages and covering different roles, I could get to know and appreciate the value of the team and of the people, women and men, which are part of it.
“I want to thank them all for the great professional and human experience we shared. I wish everybody a happy future with lots of success.”
James Allison has been through personal troubles this year with the shock death of his wife immediately after the Australian grand prix at Albert Park. This has ultimately left the technical director wanting to spend more time in the United Kingdom to look after his 3 children, meaning a full time return to his homeland was a matter of when and not if.
James Allison previously successfully worked at Team Lotus which was formerly the Renault team, and now once again the Renault team. It remains to be seen if the Enstone based squad will go after James’s services once again.
The replacement in the Maranello hot seat goes to Mattia Binotto, who is to take the role of chief technical officer moving across from the Scuderia’s engine department.
Binotto has been at Ferrari since 1995 in various roles carrying from test engineer to race engineer. Binotto became head of the KERS design team for the electric introduction in 2009, before becoming chief officer of the power unit at the end of the 2014 campaign.
No stranger to Maranello then, lets hope for his sake that the track performance increases.
It is all starting to make sense now as to why Ferrari decided to keep Kimi for another season. Not only was there no other frontrunner available but the team now needs tranquillity. Of course this doesn’t bode well at all for the next few seasons. So Vettel will be in for a rough couple of seasons.
promoting from within hasn’t always produced the best results, a rough few seasons indeed it could be for Seb.
This will surely have had an impact on their 2017 plans, and while I’m sure Seb deeply wants to be the one to bring the title back to Ferrari, if next years car turns out to be off the pace he’d be well advised to consider Alonso’s wasted years. Ah well, 4 titles is an awful lot, but by the end of next year Lewis could be on 5!!
After the tragic loss of his wife James now has to do what he considers best for his children. If that is leaving Ferrari to return to England, so be it. It will be England’s gain. Sorry to see him go, especially under such difficult circumstances.
I can’t blame him,family comes first. I should imagine that a year off garden leave and then a new direction with Williams or even a WEC switch. I can’t see a return to Renault but stranger things have happened, either way good luck James I hope you find some happiness.
I do think he’ll end up at Renault. Or maybe McLaren. Either way a championship for Alonso. 😎
Wasn’t Arrivabene two days ago insistently telling the press that he was staying?
The family thing is one thing, but I guess that it is only 30% of the reason. The other 70% is the way Marchionne leads the team, gets involved with everything and expects a result the next race. From what I hear it is no fun and not rewarding to work under him.
regardless of WHY this took place…
regardless of how one places Allison in a race-winner designer competition, etc… this is a disaster of massive proportions to Ferrari!! and I got NO problem with that 🙂
this year is toast for even 2’nd place in WCC IMHO!
next year in the hands of a rookie tech designer taking over from a failed designer is toast!
a year from now before SM realizes the stupidity of his decision. toast for 2018 with no Seb nor Kim nor any top tier driver willing to sign oni!
2019 is but a night mare – IF we even see the Prancing Horse on the grid…
and I bet if Seb still has the fire in his gut, he is already well involved in getting the hell outta Dodge as fast as possible (as in Fiat/Chrysler/DODGE/Jeep/Ram, etc..)
I have often been wrong, BUT…
how long is an exclusive mega super car mini-manufacturer gonna submit TOTAL defeat to a cushy-riding semi-luxurious mass-produced semi-reliable so-so manufacturer???
really, how many ball-sack kicks can yer sorry ass take SF???
me thinks not many more…
oops! SM… my bad…