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Jock Clear: Ferrari will miss James Allison

Ferrari's Jock Clear had admitted that the abrupt exit of the team's technical director James Allison last month is a big blow that will take some time for the Scuderia to recover from.

Allison quit the team after deciding that he could no longer spend extended periods jetting around the world attending Grand Prix events following the tragic death of his wife Rebecca in March from bacterial meningitis.

It's understood that this has left him wanting to spend more time at home with his family. There were also paddock rumours that the forthright Allison had fallen out with new Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne by speaking his mind and pushing back against 'unreasonable' requests.

Ferrari's former engine chief Mattia Binotto has since been appointed to succeed Allison, but his skill set is quite different to that of Allison meaning that the technical department will need to be reconfigured accordingly.

"I don’t think there is any suggestion that Mattia is going to immediately step into the kind of role James was doing," said Clear, who joined Ferrari earlier this year as head of race activities. "Very different background."

"Obviously you’re not going to find losing someone like James Allison – someone of his calibre is not going to go unnoticed.

"The team is going to have to work pretty hard to support everybody and cover those gaps," Clear admitted. "In that respect Mattia is going to need help from everybody. We’re going to have to pull together.

"But the fact is Ferrari has to move forward and we have to make the most of this situation as it is, and I know everybody is committed to pulling together and covering any of those areas where James was very, very strong,

"He will be missed, but that’s the challenge for us."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.