'Rival team tried to hijack Mercedes technical director'

Toto Wolff has had to act quickly to keep technical director James Allison for Mercedes. The top designer has reportedly been approached by a rival team in Formula 1.

Toto Wolff and James Allison recently extended their contracts at Mercedes. This seemed to ensure consistency for Mercedes, until Lewis Hamilton suddenly announced his departure. In the aftermath of Hamilton, the question is who else from Mercedes will go to Ferrari. For instance, the name of race engineer Peter Bonnington is also being mentioned.

One name also linked to Ferrari was that of technical director James Allison. The Briton had worked for Ferrari in the past but left there due to the death of his wife. At Mercedes, Allison returned to F1. With a new contract in place, it will be difficult for Ferrari to bring Allison back to Mercedes.

Allison was approached by another F1 team, though. According to Lawrence Barretto, Allison was approached by Aston Martin to make the switch to Lawrence Stroll's team. Because of these advances, Mercedes, with a new contract coming in, had to do everything possible to keep the technical director, according to the Formula1.com reporter in the F1 Nation Podcast.

For which position Allison was in the picture at Aston Martin is unclear. Andrew Green has served as chief technical officer there since the Force India years, while Dan Fallows was plucked away from Red Bull Racing to take on the role of technical director.