The Lotus F1 Team have promoted engineering director Nick Chester to technical director following James Allison’s resignation – which came to light on Wednesday.
Allison will depart the team with almost immediate effect and will likely remain on gardening leave until the 2014 season, as per clauses in his contract to protect the team’s sensitive data.
Chester has been with the team since it was known as Benetton in 2000. Team principal Eric Boullier is confident that by promoting from within, it will “ensure a smooth transition”.
“Nick is well known to everyone at Enstone having been with the team for over 12 years,” said Boullier. “He is already directly involved with this and next year’s cars, ensuring a smooth transition which has been underway for some time.
“It’s an illustration of the strength and breadth of talent at Enstone that we can draw on personnel of the calibre of Nick and it’s something of an Enstone tradition for new technical directors to be promoted from within.
“He assumes his new position at a tremendously exciting time for the sport. The 2014 technical regulation changes present many challenges, while our current position of second place in both the constructors’ and drivers’ world championships mean we cannot lose sight of this year’s development battle.
“Nick really has his work cut out, but we know he is more than capable of handling the tasks ahead.”
The Frenchman paid tribute to Allison.
“As a team and individually, we would all like to thank James Allison for his efforts during his three stints at Enstone and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
