2023-04-25 12:58:00
James Ellison has retaken the position of technical director of the Mercedes AMG F1, but it turns out, not only because the team urgently needed his help to solve problems related to the W14 chassis, but also because the changed situation in his personal life allowed.
Until recently, Allison has been involved in two tasks – preparing for the transition to the new technical regulation, which will enter into force only in 2026, but mainly he paid attention to a side project of Mercedes – cooperation with the Ineos Britannia yachting team, which competes in the America’s Cup, one of the most prestigious regattas of the world.
But now James is back to day-to-day work with the Formula 1 team, and he’s been quite candid regarding what happened before, taking part in the F1 Nation podcast on the official website of the championship.
In 2016, while Ellison was still at Ferrari, his wife Rebecca died suddenly of bacterial meningitis, a tragic event that forced him to return to the UK to be closer to his family, following which he accepted an offer from Mercedes. The cars created with his direct participation won races and championships, but two years ago he chose to take up other projects in order to better manage his time.
“This is largely due to the fact that the tragic death of my wife overshadowed my life for a long time,” Ellison shared. – And I was lucky that a few years later I met another person – Chloe lived in France at that time, worked there for 20 years and generally spent her whole life in France.
When she, out of her kindness – though some would say foolishly – agreed to move in with me so that we might live together, she sacrificed a lot. It seemed to me that it would be unfair to leave her to herself, saying: “Thank you for moving to England. Now we will see each other five minutes a week.”
When I left the position of technical director, which is one of the main roles in the team, it allowed me to devote more time to our relationship, and now things are going great in this area. And if not for my decision, it would be difficult to achieve this.
But Chloe moved in with me more than two years ago, and since she had some roots in our country, she found a job for herself that does not depend on me in any way, so now there are much more opportunities to return to her previous position than two with over a year ago.”
When Ellison was asked how much he was involved in building the 2023 car, he replied: “I worked a lot less on the W14 chassis than on the cars that were built when I was technical director. I was more involved in preparing for what awaits us in 2026 than in the operational tasks associated with this year’s car.
Of course, now it will take a lot of effort to improve in all areas, but it’s interesting, it’s exciting, and I’m happy to plunge into this work once more literally with my head. Luckily, the W14 definitely has its strengths, it’s reliable and it’s driven by two very fast drivers.
The Mercedes car is better than many others on the starting field. But until it becomes the fastest, we will have the feeling that it is not good enough. In addition, it interacts quite adequately with rubber, although not as well as some of the machines we have built in the past.
If we talk regarding downforce, then the W14 has more of it than most championship cars, but this is still not enough. Handling characteristics also leave much to be desired, so, of course, we have something to work on. But we know all this, we talk regarding it every weekend, and the team will have to solve these problems, so that we get a car that will allow us to fight for victories …
The sooner we solve them, the higher will be our chances of success at any stage of the season, once morest any of the teams. But we have an absolutely realistic attitude, and we are aware that Red Bull has a significant superiority in speed, primarily thanks to Max Verstappen. These are exceptionally worthy opponents, but we will try to catch up with them, and when the time comes, to get ahead of them.
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