Apparently I missed the news of la Scuderia
and it's now former Chief Technical Officer James Allison Wink-wink, Nudge-Nudge,
"mutually" deciding to part company days prior to the just concluded
German GP, whilst once again your humble No Fenders scribe Tomaso was Out 'N
Aboat in thou Bush...
Allison, age 48 is a gifted chassis designer
who's still grieving over the sudden loss of his wife back home in England
while James worked in Italy and had been rumoured for weeks wishing to leave
Ferrari and return home. For which apparently his wish was granted by the
Ferrari hierarchy, presumably mainly Sergio "The Ax!" Marchionne.
Allison has been replaced by longtime Ferrari
employee Mattia Binotto as la Scuderia's new Chief Technical Officer, who's
risen thru the ranks of engine development after beginning his tenure in
Formula 1 as test engineer for Ferrari, then joining the race team in '97
working primarily with Rubino', nee Rubens Barrichelo.
Allison's services most likely will be highly
sought after, with the obvious speculation suggesting his return to Enstone and
le Reggie', nee Renault where he'd previously been the team's Technical
Director under its Lotus F1 guise, having designed the chassis that Kimi
Raikkonen scored the team's latest two victories with before the squad then
under Gerard Lopez's management floundered mightily from financial instability.
Also in the hunt for Allison's services could
be McLaren, since he previously worked with the team's Racing Director Eric Boullier when both
were at Lotus.
Whilst I don't expect this final suggestion, which
is pure hypothesis upon my part but, it
looks like Team Willy', aka Williams F1 could certainly use his chassis
design expertise at the moment...
