F1 News
Who could replace Toto Wolff if he stepped back?
- GPblog.com
Team boss Toto Wolff does not yet have a contract with Mercedes for next year and it looks more and more like he is really going to take a step back. Gazzetta dello Sport have suggested this is the case as well as pointing towards his successor.
Step back for Wolff
The Mercedes team boss has often hinted that he wants to spend more time with his family, and certainly with the packed calendar in 2021 that will have been very difficult. According to the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, next year Wolff will indeed take a step back at Mercedes. His successor would even be ready; James Allison. The current technical director of Mercedes would then take over the role of Wolff. The newspaper also reports that Wolff will probably get a role as president of the team.
James Allison
Allison joined Mercedes in 2017, where he took over the role of technical director from Paddy Lowe. The Brit has been working in Formula 1 since 1991 when he joined Benetton's aerodynamics department. He left for Ferrari in 2000 to return to Benetton, then renamed Renault, in 2005. In 2009 he took on the role of technical director for the first time. From 2013 to 2016 he worked at Ferrari again.
What exactly the role of Toto Wolff is going to be, and what this means for the future of Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, is not yet known. It will probably not be clear until Hamilton has secured his seventh world title.