James Allison on Ferrari's 2017 Formula 1 car

Current Technical Director of Mercedes-AMG James Allison admits that he cannot take a lot of credit for the competitive car which his former team Scuderia Ferrari have managed to produce for the 2017 Formula One season.

The motor sport designer and engineer officially re-joined Ferrari in 2013 as Chassis Technical Director and then Technical Director until July 2016, but left the role at the Maranello team during the 2016 F1 campaign, as a lot of people speculated that his departure would be very damaging for this championship. However, Ferrari has won two out of the first three races and at the moment leads both the drivers’ and constructors championship. The SFH70’s development was taken over by Mattia Binotto, whose team has delivered a car which Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne predicts will be “at the forefront” of the title race all season. James Allison admits that it would not be fair for him to take any credit for the development of this year’s car:

“I left Ferrari many months ago and joined Mercedes just some small number of weeks ago and anything that Ferrari has done for this year’s car is a credit to the people that work at Ferrari over these months and what they have delivered. Similarly, in the team that I’m in now, the credit for the fantastic performance of this team so far is down to all the people that have been putting in the effort at Brackley over those months.” – James Allison said, as reported by espn.co.uk.

Ferrari’s former Technical Director then joked about the period of gardening leave he entered after leaving the Italian team, which ended when he was confirmed at Mercedes on the eve of pre-season testing: “I can only really be held responsible for the state of my garden at the moment which is looking very fine as a result of all the effort I’ve put into it in the last six months or so!”

Current Chief Technical Officer of Scuderia Ferrari Mattia Binotto was more than happy to hint at some credit to Allison, yet he confirms that the SFH70 is a result of a team effort at Ferrari’s base at Maranello: “I think that James has already answered, nothing more really to add. James was part of our team at the beginning of last year, as it’s true that there is plenty of people working at Ferrari and the credit is to everybody.” – Mattia Binotto explained.