James Allison reveals heartwarming reason why he stepped down from Mercedes technical director role

James Allison revealed that it was his personal life that made him step back from the Mercedes front as technical director back in 2021, as the Englishman is now stepping up to return to the post again.

Earlier this week, Mercedes announced that James Allison would be returning to his old position as the technical director. Allison stepped away from the role abruptly in 2021, and the team has not won a driver's championship sine that year.

Giving his first interview since then on the F1 Nation podcast, he revealed the reason for this switch he made in the team. His decision came after he met someone and started living with her. The situation made him switch to a less intense role in the team.

"A lot of that goes back to the long and very tragic shadow cast by my wife dying. And being lucky enough a few years later to meet somebody else, who at the time was living in France and working in France and had all her life in France and had done for 20 years or so."

He revealed that the person he was living with had decided to move from France to London, but the responsibility that Allison had gave him intense work and less time for his personal life. And so, to spend more time with his partner, Allison stepped down.

"When she kindly, some would say foolishly, agreed to come and cast her lot in with me so that we could live together, she was giving up an awful lot. It seemed a little unfair from my point of view to cast her adrift and say, ‘thanks for coming over to England, I’ll see you five minutes a week.'"

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How did Allison get the chance to return to the Mercedes frontline?

After being with his partner for over two years in the country, Allison revealed that she has 'roots' in the country and that he can now invest enough time with the Mercedes' frontline, back as their technical director.

"And she has some roots in this country now, being her own thing that doesn’t depend on my face, so it’s much more believable, much more possible now, to do this than it would’ve been two and a bit years ago."

As heartwarming as the reason is, it's also extremely good news for Mercedes. After their uncompetitive 2022 season and a weak start to this season, Allison could play a crucial role in the further development of the W14. It was under his watch that Lewis Hamilton won his world championships with the team, and so was the case with Fernando Alonso at Renault and Michael Schumacher in Ferrari.