James Allison believes Ferrari have put in place the necessary changes to see them return to the very top of the pile in Formula 1.
The British engineer joined the Italian team this season from Lotus and says Pat Fry’s efforts to turn Ferrari around will soon pay off, adding that he’s lucky to be joining them at this stage.
“I’ve, first of all, been very fortunate to arrive at Ferrari at a point in their cycle when a lot of the changes necessary to return to the front rank – I mean right at the front rank, i.e. winning championships – a lot of the changes necessary to do that have been put in place by Pat Fry,” he said.
“I think I’m particularly lucky to have arrived and been able to benefit from those investments rather than having to start them from scratch. There is much more to be done but I’m a lucky chap to be picking up where I am.”
Ferrari has reshuffled its management after several poor seasons without a championship and upgraded its wind tunnel in an effort to beat Red Bull.
He’s expecting a shake-up in the order next year thanks to significant rule changes, but ultimate pace might not be enough with the potential for reliability to play a key role.
“I think that the size of the rule change means that there will be some unanticipated reshuffling of the pack in terms of where all the teams will find themselves in the pecking order.
“I would also imagine that the first half of next year is likely to be heavily affected by reliability. Next year’s rule changes are big enough, just in terms of the configuration of the car but they also place a much much higher burden of reliability on us as well.”
