Wolff has a new 'twin brother': 'He is my sparring partner'

One of the most important people behind the scenes at Mercedes in recent years was James Allison. However, he decided back in 2019 that he no longer wanted to be involved with the team as technical director from 2021 onwards. To keep the talented Allison on board anyway, Toto Wolff has therefore created a new position for him. A position that puts Allison on a par with Wolff.

"It was almost a logical step to make him my technical twin brother," Wolff said of Allison's new position to The Race. Wolff says Allison serves as his sparring partner, a term reserved for Niki Lauda in the past.

Allison not keen on the role of team boss

Wolff had Allison in mind as his replacement, but the Briton doesn't want that. He doesn't think he has the qualities to fulfil the role. Allison will now mainly focus on the long term strategy of not only the F1 team but also Mercedes Motorsport as a whole. He will hand over the day-to-day development of the F1 car entirely to new technical director Mike Elliott.

“He is a sparring partner of mine when it comes down to strategic discussions, political discussions and he is getting more involved also with the other departments and racing programmes that we have. I’m also the head of Mercedes[-AMG] Motorsport. And so it makes sense to have a technical director for all motorsports programmes", Wolff said.