James Allison with Kimi Raikkonen and Romain GrosjeanLotus team owner Gerard Lopez has played down the impact created by the departure of technical director James Allison’s from the Enstone based team.
So highly rated had Briton Allison become within the Formula 1 paddock, that many insiders believe the 45-year-old would be able to take his pick in terms of choosing his next team.
Lotus has promoted from within – Nick Chester – to replace Allison, so it is feared that Enstone will now struggle to produce as good a car with a budget smaller than Formula 1’s ‘big four’ Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.
Lopez told Finland’s Turun Sanomat: “We have known for some time that Allison is leaving, so I don’t think it’s relevant to our performance.
“James is a great guy, an important guy,” he is also quoted by Sporting Life, “but that was more from a coordination point of view.
“When Bob Bell left (for Mercedes), there was panic outside of Enstone, but not with us, and this is the same thing. It’s not going to affect us,” He added.
“Enstone has amazing talent.”