It’s safe to say that things aren’t going particularly well at Mercedes this season.
Toto Wolff’s hopes of ending their winless streak that has stretched since the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix looks like a pipe dream right now.
Speaking on The Chequered Flag Podcast, journalist Andrew Benson has been talking about the situation within the team.
It’s a huge blow that at the beginning of 2025, Mercedes will no longer have seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to call upon.
The 39-year-old is making a switch to Ferrari that a few years ago would have been unthinkable.
Questions will be asked behind the scenes at Brackley as they look no closer to figuring out their long-term issues with the ground effect cars.
With the regulations changing in 2026, Mercedes are running out of time to solve those issues and Wolff might have to decide soon whether the team he currently has at his disposal is the right one to design their new car.
However, Benson has suggested that it would be crazy for Mercedes to consider sacking technical director James Allison.
The 56-year-old has decades of experience in Formula 1 and has worked for some of the biggest teams in the paddock.
Unfortunately, he and his team can’t get to grips with what’s going wrong with the F1 W15.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Andrew Benson can’t see Mercedes sacking James Allison
Alisson started his career with Benetton in the early 1990s before moving to Ferrari in 2000.
He was a key part of the team that helped Michael Schumacher win five consecutive championships before being poached by Renault in 2005.
That added another couple of titles to his CV as Fernando Alonso won back-to-back championships with Flavio Briatore’s outfit.
Allison continued to switch between Renault – later known as Lotus – and Ferrari before moving to Mercedes in 2017.
He then helped Toto Wolff’s team win four Constructors’ Championships and aided Lewis Hamilton during his final three individual titles.
Despite the struggles of Mercedes, sacking James Allison is unlikely to immediately help them catch their rivals.
READ MORE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
Mercedes need to make McLaren-style improvements in 2024
Speaking about Mercedes’s woes, Benson said: “The issue isn’t a management issue, it’s a technical understanding issue.
“He’s [Toto Wolff] not designing the car, the issue is the car design.
“Now, so that then passes the question onto the technical department, are they going to make changes there?
“Maybe, [but] are they likely to replace James Allison as technical director? I’d be absolutely dumbstruck if they did.
“James Allison is incredibly highly regarded; most people would regard him as the second-best technical leader in Formula 1 behind Adrian Newey.
“I think most people would think they’d lost their marbles if they got rid of Allison.”
Sacking James Allison won’t help Mercedes, but they may need to further build up their aerodynamics team which has been poached by their various rivals on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had the easiest start to the season and while he finished on the podium for the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Race, he followed that performance up by being eliminated in Q1.
George Russell has been very consistent this season and appears more comfortable in this season’s car.
However, he’s not capable of challenging the likes of Ferrari and McLaren to finish on the podium with the two Red Bull cars.
The post ‘I’d be absolutely dumbstruck’: Mercedes sacking ‘incredible’ 56-year-old is out of the question – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.