Mercedes signs James Allison as technical director

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The Mercedes F1 team has swooped in to secure the services of James Allison as their new technical director from March 1.

Allison was formerly technical director at Ferrari. He left the team in July following the death of his wife from meningitis, as he needed to spend more time in the UK taking care of his young family.

Allison's new post will mean he will be working at Mercedes' headquarters in Brackley, situated 70 miles northwest of London.

“I am very excited to be getting back to work after this time away from the sport," said Allison.

"It’s a massive privilege to be given the trust of a position in a team that has done so spectacularly well in the past three seasons.

"I am really looking forward to playing my part in helping Mercedes go from strength to strength in the coming years."

The role of technical director has been specially created for Allison. He will report directly to the team's boss, Toto Wolff.

"I am delighted to welcome James to Mercedes and very much looking forward to working with him," said Wolff.

"Our technical team is extremely skilled at every level and at the top of its game after delivering three world championships in a row.

"It wasn’t an easy task to find the right personality who can strengthen our experienced group of engineers, give our talented young team members the space to develop and also bring his own vision to this role.

"James is a sharp engineer; I think we have found the perfect guy and the right fit with our senior leaders."

Allison began his Formula One career at the aerodynamics department of Benetton. He was eventually made head of aerodynamics at the team and was subsequently technical director when the team was renamed first Renault and then Lotus F1, before moving to Ferrari in 2013.

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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.