Mercedes is ramping up its involvement with the Ineos Britannia America’s Cup team and has assigned tech chief James Allison to the project.
Mercedes' became involved with Ineos Team UK last year through its Applied Science subsidiary. However, the team's defeat in the Prada Cup final in New Zealand at the hands of Italy's Luna Rossa has encouraged project leader Sir Ben Ainslie to revamp the team and its management structure.
It is often said that the America's Cup is 'Formula 1 on water', a view that should put Allison right at home with his new assignment.
"There's not a lot of difference between trying to put the best car on the road and racing against others, and F1 on water, and that is the America's Cup," said Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff following the announcement of Mercedes extending its involvement with Ineos Britannia.
“We slowly merged into the project, pretty late into the last campaign, but we loved it. I could see the buzz within the organisation that people started to follow the America's Cup and raced it as our own project. Now we're doing it properly next time around.
"I think we have to say the mindset is about trying to do the best possible job; hopefully good enough to be right there."
©Ineos
Ineos Britannia's partnership with Mercedes Applied Sciences will allow it to tap into the latter's resources and expertise, and that will include Allison's immensely valuable creative engineering talent.
But the man who led the design efforts for the Brackley squad's winning cars these past few years isn't underestimated the task at hand in his new field of expertise.
"People talk about the America's Cup being like F1 on water," he said. "Most people are immediately thinking, well it's a bit hydrodynamic, it's a bit aerodynamic, it’s technological, it's all of those things.
"But actually the most striking comparison to me is that it's difficult.
"The way in which it's worked okay for us in F1 is having the humility to admit that it's difficult, and [knowing] that your competitors will eat you up the moment you stop remembering that it's difficult.
"This challenge is proper difficult."
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