27/07/2016
NEWS STORY
The news of James Allison's departure doesn't come as a surprise indeed, the paddock has been expecting it for some time.
With Mercedes continuing to dominate and Ferrari now losing ground to Red Bull, the Italian media - rather than looking at the complete picture - has been looking for a fall guy and in 2015, in particular, the Briton was under sustained attack.
Then, in March this year, just as the Italian team's season was getting underway, Allison's wife Rebecca died suddenly. Since then, with young sons to raise, and still reeling from the death of his wife, though commuting on a regular basis to Maranello, the Briton has not been attending races.
With Ferrari under increasing pressure from both the Italian media and company President, Sergio Marchionne, Allison's future with the Italian team was placed in even more doubt by the fact that his services would be welcome elsewhere. Indeed, the most likely scenario will see the Briton return to Enstone.
First entering F1 in 1991 with Benetton as a junior aerodynamicist he subsequently left for Larrousse before returning to Enstone in 1994.
Over the years he rose to the position of Head of Aerodynamics before leaving to join Ferrari in 2000.
In 2005, he moved back to Enstone, where Benetton had morphed into Renault, the Briton was appointed Technical Director, a role he held as the team became Lotus Renault GP and finally Lotus, leaving for Ferrari once again in 2014.
Mattia Binotto is a lifelong Ferrari man and following time with its test team went on to engineer for Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher.
In 2005 he was appointed Chief Engineer Race and Customer Engines, while in 2008 he was appointed Head of Engine Assembly & Track Activities.
Three years as Chief Track Engineer were followed by a year (2013) with Toro Rosso as Race Engine Manager before returning to Maranello first as Engine & Electronics Vice Director and then Head of Power Unit Department.
With Binotto's promotion the team will now be looking for a new head for its power unit department.
One cannot help but feel that Allison's departure could be the first of several high-profile 'moves', all of which is going to further unsettle the team and send out negative signals, particularly to Sebastian Vettel.
With Maurizio Arrivabene denying as recently as last weekend that Allison would be leaving, could this be why the team made the unusually early, and widely unexpected, decision to retain Kimi Raikkonen?
When Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996 it took several, long years to pull what was to become an all-conquering behemoth into shape. However, the key people were already in place. This time around, as Vettel attempts to rebuild the team, as his hero did, the structure appears to be falling apart with no Todt or Brawn-like figure to take control.