James Allison and Ferrari Part Ways

[lance_rambert]

http://formula1.ferrari.com/en/mattia-b ... l-officer/

Well, that relationship didn't last long. This also doesn't bode well for Ferrari's future form, which is currently not brilliant. Hopefully the new guy can prove me wrong.

Can't really blame the guy for wanting to move back to England from Italy for whatever reasons, losing his wife and having to take care of the rest of his family probably being up there.

We'll see at some point if he continues to do F1 stuff or just walk away from it altogether.

[CoopsII]

I'm not convinced it was entirely down to the poor guys circumstances, his children are all pretty much grown up, I believe. Of course, grief is different for everyone and who are we to judge but I can't help thinking Ferrari are going Full Pre-Todt-Ferrari at the moment.

[razta]

Ross Brawn on his way to meet Marchionne apparently

[Rob Dylan]

Serious question:

How damaging is it to a team to change the technical director mid-way through the season? I would assume by this point that Ferrari are already concentrating on next year's car, with this one trying to finish ahead of the Red Bulls. But how much input does someone like James Allison solely put into the development and direction of the car, and how much actually changes at Ferrari in the next few weeks with someone taking over the job?

[Spectoremg]

Have Ferrari actually said they're concentrating on next years car? (a wonderful euphemism for 'this one's sh1t').
Their superstar signing is being (just) outpointed by their journeyman Finn and is often very grumpy in the car. The improving Red Bulls are snapping at their heels in the constructor standings. They haven't won a race this year and don't look like doing so and the top team are working well withing their comfort zone.
As rightly stated previously family is important but it must have been an easier decision to make.

[Ataxia]

Serious question:

How damaging is it to a team to change the technical director mid-way through the season? I would assume by this point that Ferrari are already concentrating on next year's car, with this one trying to finish ahead of the Red Bulls. But how much input does someone like James Allison solely put into the development and direction of the car, and how much actually changes at Ferrari in the next few weeks with someone taking over the job?

Pat Symonds has described the technical director job as being the conductor of an orchestra, in that they have knowledge of all areas. As I understand it, they guide the team towards a final product through setting targets, providing overall direction and making suggestions to the engineers.

Each different technical director will have their own preferences and methods. Some may influence the design of the car such as setting out a clear "I want a size zero rear-end" or something, or may hold inter-department meetings in order to outlay an objective.

[mario]

Ross Brawn on his way to meet Marchionne apparently

I'm fairly sure that Brawn has been to a few races over the past few years - there seem to be a lot of people who want to link him with Ferrari, but sometimes I wonder if it is perhaps the wish that is father of the thought, as it were.

Have Ferrari actually said they're concentrating on next years car? (a wonderful euphemism for 'this one's sh1t').
Their superstar signing is being (just) outpointed by their journeyman Finn and is often very grumpy in the car. The improving Red Bulls are snapping at their heels in the constructor standings. They haven't won a race this year and don't look like doing so and the top team are working well withing their comfort zone.
As rightly stated previously family is important but it must have been an easier decision to make.

They've not officially stated that they have done that, and at the moment it looks like they are still continuing to develop the current car (albeit a bit slower than might have been expected).

[Edit] And it now looks as if all of that excitement over Brawn being in Germany might have been a bit overdone. Maurice Hamilton has now said that it turns out that Ross was in Germany just for a day in order to give a presentation for the Schumacher Foundation, so it seems that speculation about Ross going for a meeting with Arrivabene was wide of the mark.

[Londoner]

So it's been revealed that Allison was fired, and didn't leave due to compassionate reasons..

The atmosphere at Maranello must be toxic.

[lance_rambert]

The atmosphere at Maranello must be toxic.

No, no, no. It's not the guys at Maranello that are toxic. That awful Spanish man now driving for the enemy McLaren was the toxic one. He left, so there's no more toxic atmosphere, right? Please don't think I'm serious here...

Looks like Ferrari's back to that same blame culture that worked oh-so-well back before and after the Todt/Brawn/Byrne/Schumacher era.

Is it time to start taking bets on when Vettel says "f**k it" and leaves? Bonus points if you can guess when some ex-Ferrari employee opens his mouth and says Vettel was the problem.

[mario]

So it's been revealed that Allison was fired, and didn't leave due to compassionate reasons..

The atmosphere at Maranello must be toxic.

It does seem to be one of those situations where there seems to have been claims and counter claims, since there have also been some comments suggesting that Allison had also made some decisions which had made things difficult for Ferrari.

Auto Motor und Sport have claimed in the past that, after his wife passed away earlier this year, Allison had cut back his working week at Ferrari to three and a half days a week and spent most race weekends back at home instead of with the team.
At the same time, it seems that Allison's management structure placed the majority of the decisions on the development direction of the car into his hands, with his extended periods of absence earlier in the year due to his wife's illness causing increasing delays as new development parts were not being approved. There is a suggestion that this came to something of a head in the run up to the British GP, with Ferrari having asked Allison if he was prepared to commute from home to the circuit to provide additional technical support and Allison reportedly declining their request.

From the point of view of Marchionne, if the claims from AMuS that Allison was only working 3.5 days a week are true, I can see why he might want to let Allison go - if a man whom through most of the decision making process of the team is being routed through is only there 70% of the time, that is going to potentially slow your development down quite considerably.

[DemocalypseNow]

So it's been revealed that Allison was fired, and didn't leave due to compassionate reasons..

The atmosphere at Maranello must be toxic.

It does seem to be one of those situations where there seems to have been claims and counter claims, since there have also been some comments suggesting that Allison had also made some decisions which had made things difficult for Ferrari.

Auto Motor und Sport have claimed in the past that, after his wife passed away earlier this year, Allison had cut back his working week at Ferrari to three and a half days a week and spent most race weekends back at home instead of with the team.
At the same time, it seems that Allison's management structure placed the majority of the decisions on the development direction of the car into his hands, with his extended periods of absence earlier in the year due to his wife's illness causing increasing delays as new development parts were not being approved. There is a suggestion that this came to something of a head in the run up to the British GP, with Ferrari having asked Allison if he was prepared to commute from home to the circuit to provide additional technical support and Allison reportedly declining their request.

From the point of view of Marchionne, if the claims from AMuS that Allison was only working 3.5 days a week are true, I can see why he might want to let Allison go - if a man whom through most of the decision making process of the team is being routed through is only there 70% of the time, that is going to potentially slow your development down quite considerably.

The one paragraph that really caught my attention was this;

Ferrari now has a structure which is more corporate, according to their media department, a model which works well at Proctor and Gamble, according to a spokesman. It revolves around supervisors and a flatter structure.

This is absolutely the correct model to follow. It doesn't matter how good your department head is, if every decision is required to be routed through them, and that person isn't there 30% of the time. Tall hierarchical structures have no place in a modern corporation - they slow down innovation and, stifle creativity. A technical director needs to define the ethos of the car, but not have to sign off on every decision, on every upgrade.

The only experience I can refer to from first hand is coding. I have met and worked with some people whose knowledge I can't even begin to fathom when it comes to writing code, but they are so catastrophically terrible at management of any form, whether it be in prioritising their work, or being able to concisely justify their requirements, or being able to compromise for the greater good. This can mean some of them would be a terrible choice for a department head. Perhaps there was element of this - those with incredible engineering knowledge may not necessarily be equally as adept at coordinating the entire division in which they specialise.