James Allison has left Lotus and will go either to McLaren or Ferrari. If he goes to McLaren what would he do there? He can't go there as technical director because Goss has just taken that role. He could maybe take Goss' old position (Engineering Director) but why would he take a step backwards from technical director? So the alternative is Ferrari. Working in Italy wouldn't be a problem because he's done it before, but are Ferrari really preparing to replace Pat Fry? I can't see what Fry has done wrong. Tombazis just yesterday said Ferrari's strong start to the season was partly due to changes in "working practices" which is Fry's responsibility. He may be coming as deputy technical director (the role Fry had when he first joined Ferrari) but that's still a step down from his current position. So perhaps....he's making the step up to team principal? Whitmarsh and Domenicali don't have great records and I can see either being replaced.
He'd be wasted as a team principal. Like you I can't see Ferrari dropping Fry. The most likely scenario in my opinion is that McLaren are going to persevere with that terrible policy of alternating designers. It's sad to see him leave Lotus, hopefully Chester's up to the task of replacing him.
The rumours have always been Mclaren, and they have been reshuffling as of late. Maybe he could replace whitless <please please please> sad to see him leave lotus though
The rumours have always been Mclaren, and they have been reshuffling as of late. Maybe he could replace whitless <please please please> sad to see him leave lotus though
Sounds like it's either Williams or Ferrari, and it has to be a team principal role (why else would he reject McLaren TD position?) Who needs a new team principal?
I thought that initially but not sure where he would fit in with Coughlan, Somerville and the Williams'. Perhaps a move to Red Bull? I know it seems unlikely but he could work under Newey for a few years and then replace him when the great man retires one day. As for Mercedes, how could he possibly go there? There would be way too many technical people and too many conflicts between them to make it work.
Surely this increases the chances of Kimi moving to Red Bull next year, more of an unknown factor with Lotus now in regard to what they can produce without Allison.
Maybe Allison will work in a newly created position. This is what Tombazis said a couple of days ago: "However, the process is not complete and we feel we are only halfway through these fundamental changes and we continue to work on improving all these parameters, which, in the case of our facilities, includes the work we are doing on our wind tunnel. I think the new working methods we have adopted and the new structure put in place has allowed us to be more creative and this was one of the objectives we established along with Pat Fry, to reorganise the place and to give people more time to think. We identified areas where, in the past few years, we were a bit understaffed, which meant people were under pressure and did not have time to think about what could make the car go faster. It is working, but there is room to improve still further, even though this aspect has definitely contributed to the improvement in performance that we have seen so far this year."
