The success or failure of the 2016 Formula One season as a sporting spectacle is in the hands of a quietly spoken Cambridge graduate with a private passion for flying an 80-year-old Auster aircraft over the English countryside.
James Allison is Ferrari’s technical director and as such he has had overall responsibility for piecing together the only car capable of mounting a serious challenge to the intimidating hegemony of Mercedes when the new season begins in Australia on Sunday.
When Allison invited me to his Oxfordshire home last year it was to talk about Ferrari’s sensational win in the Malaysian Grand Prix, their first victory since May 2013. I had scheduled half an hour for the interview but Allison’s gentle enthusiasm, his contagious ardency, meant that we spoke for two hours. It was easy to understand his talent for leading a team.
Ferrari were to win two more races last year with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finishing third and fourth respectively in the drivers’ championship, behind the Mercedes duo. This time, however, there are fervent hopes that the prancing horse has upped its gallop and narrowed the yawning gap that existed between Mercedes and everyone else involved in 2015.
This is the first car that Allison has had total responsibility for creating; the 2015 model bore his fingerprints but the SF16-H carries his full DNA.
“All our hopes are in this car,” he said as he prepared for the opening race here on Sunday. “It’s certainly a very bold car – but it needs to be. If we look at last year’s model we were working to improve a baseline that was really quite poor.
“So we were able to make big steps last year. But to improve on last year’s car, which was quite reasonable, and make something which is another step forward, we needed to take bolder steps.
“We needed to be braver and work across the entire car in an aggressive way. And that’s something we have done, on the chassis side and also on the power unit. Horsepower, downforce, handling, everywhere – we’re very proud of what we’ve done everywhere. And we can’t wait to see it run.”
Allison, 48, is in his second spell with Ferrari. His first, five-year stint, at the start of the century, coincided with Michael Schumacher winning five world championships. He rejoined the Scuderia in September 2013 and last year signed a new contract that will take him to the end of 2018.
He is respected as one of the leading engineers in Formula One. Eric Boullier, his old employer at Lotus who is now racing director at McLaren, says: “He has a management style that maybe some other teams would like to copy. He’s a good communicator, a good co-ordinator, has very good technical skills and a good vision. People trust him.”
Allison clearly possesses organisational ability as well as a technical vision. His most significant early contribution after rejoining Ferrari was to change the team’s vicious circle in which they would persevere for too long with a failing car and commence work on the following year’s challenger too late.
“We were robbing the future Peter to pay the present Paul,” he told me. “You pay enormously if you ignore the future.” Having said that, Ferrari still started work on their 2016 chassis a little later than some teams.
The SF16-H dominated the timesheets during testing in Barcelona recently. But it was often shod with faster, softer rubber. Mercedes, who opted to pound in the laps using harder compounds, emerged the more impressive overall.
The new Ferrari has the now fashionable short-nose look and has changed to a pushrod front suspension, giving up on the pullrod system. It also has a reworked rear end. Its performance this weekend will either enhance or detract from Allison’s strong reputation. But even he is unsure about how it will go.
“Every year we break new ground because we think we can make a car faster and better than the old one. But this year we have a very high proportion of bold new approaches and that’s necessary for us to make the step forward we want.
“If we do everything we intend we have a realistic chance. Saying it is easy, and doing it is a lot, lot harder. Only time will tell. But the entire project team has given its absolute best to make sure we can put a competitive car on the ground for the first race.”
At the very least Ferrari should improve on their effort here last year; Vettel finished third but was 35 seconds behind the winner, Lewis Hamilton.
