James Allison has admitted that work on the new Mercedes W15 F1 2024 car has meant he has less time to spend on Sir Ben Ainslie's America's Cup raids.
Alisson returned as Mercedes' technical director following the team's poor start to the 2023 F1 season, with the former Ferrari and Lotus figure leading the design of the new W15 for 2024.
Alisson returns to a senior role after becoming Mercedes' Chief Technology Officer in 2021, balancing his F1 duties with the same role with INEOS Team UK Britannia's America's Cup team and leading Mercedes' Applied Science division. He fulfilled his role as a technical manager by incorporating opinions from other people.
Mercedes W15 boss compares America's Cup to F1
Mercedes announced on Thursday that Alisson has signed a new long-term contract extension with the team. The 37th America's Cup is scheduled to be held in Barcelona, home of the F1 Spanish Grand Prix, later this year.
Currently appearing on performance people podcast Alisson, along with Ainsley's wife and former Sky F1 presenter Georgie, expressed regret that his return to senior roles at Mercedes meant he had less time to work on sailing projects.
And while he admits Ainsley's team are not favorites to win the America's Cup, he is hopeful that they can get a shot at glory.
He said: “I hope we work hard enough together to give ourselves that chance.
“Having returned to F1's technical director role, I've had far less time to work with Ben than before, so it's a bit fraudulent to talk as if I play a key role in F1. I feel that.
“But every week I see the extraordinary amount of effort from that team, the experienced marine engineers and the people who have dedicated their lives to motor racing engineering.
“I think collectively we've accomplished some things that we can be very proud of. We've built some foundations that have moved things forward since the last America's Cup.
“We're by no means the favorites to win. There's good work being done there, so we're pretty good underdogs to be in this position and if we can execute the next few months of work cleanly, we have a chance to surprise a few people.” I think we might have bought it ourselves.
“I really hope so, because I couldn't have asked for a better person to give so much of my life to, all these years, and your husband for so much longer. Enjoy the success you deserve for your efforts. ”
Recommended by PlanetF1.com
2024 F1 Calendar: Car Release Dates, Preseason Tests, TV Schedule
Red Bull RB17: The £5m hypercar that inspired Adrian Newey
When asked about the main differences between the America's Cup and F1, Alisson pointed to the work that F1 has needed to do over the years to provide a more consistent barometer of a team's progress.
He explained: “That's not to say that F1 isn't difficult, but for all the fun it has, there are also aspects of it that are ridiculously difficult to deal with.
“But there is a huge part of the America's Cup where the people who work on it, and those who are willing to work on it, take on a level of sacrifice and endurance challenge that F1 people don't experience to the same measure.
“The distance between events is much longer. In F1 there are only 90 days. [of a winter break] And then we go back there and race every other week for the majority of the season.
“So there's a continuous feedback loop about where you stand and where your weaknesses are, giving you hints on how to fix them.
“With the America's Cup, we know this Cup will be held in a few years, it's a one-shot and therefore the stakes are incredibly high.
“It's over many years, so in human terms, it's a promise that says, 'This is a significant portion of the time I'm going to spend on earth, and I'm going to dedicate it to…' It’s going to take a big part of me off the table for years.”
“If you think about the period of your adult life, it's a long time, but at the same time, deadlines come so fast that the moment the starting gun goes off, it's only a blink of an eye.
“It takes a lot of strength to deal with being so far behind schedule and the pressure that that has put on people over the years.
“This is a layer of psychological and physical challenge that F1 people don't face on the same scale.
“Overall, over the last 30 years in the F1 industry, the industry has gone from being quite a cottage industry, to a world where people are pretty entrenched but where the whole machine is fully industrialized, detailed and process-driven. It's also true that things have changed.''It all fits together very well.
“The organizations that do it are very mature and have championship after championship in their blood, and that allows them to condition themselves to do it.
“But as a result, they are quite fragmented compared to an America's Cup team with a very small number of people carrying out a very big task.
“They have to become more jack-of-all-trades and are able to cover a tremendous amount of ground individually compared to their F1 counterparts who are asked to do much smaller things at a much more detailed level. can.
“It was an interesting experience to see how much territory a person from the ocean can cover.
“Their breadth of knowledge may not be as deep in a particular area, but it is broader in terms of the vehicles they operate, which are boats rather than cars.
“Culturally, for someone who has been in the mechanized part of F1 for the past few decades, it was interesting to see how a different world works.”
Read next: Revealed: The surprising connection between F1 and the Great Train Robbery
