Toto Wolff reportedly lining up 55-year-old as his ‘possible replacement’ at Mercedes

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Mercedes team principal and part-team owner Toto Wolff will be delighted that James Allison has signed a contract extension with the team.

The German team are working hard to tie down several key personnel with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both signed up until 2025.

Toto Wolff signed a new contract last week and James Allison joined him in extending his time with the team.

The 55-year-old is one of the most successful engineers in the modern era of Formula 1.

He joined Benetton’s aerodynamics team back in 1991, before stints with Larrousse, Ferrari and Renault.

Allison was technical director at Renault when they became Lotus F1 before returning to Ferrari for three years.

After a stint out of the sport, Alisson joined Mercedes in 2017, replacing Paddy Lowe who joined Williams to become the team’s technical director and helped lead the team during one of the most dominating spells in F1 history.

He oversaw several amazing campaigns from Lewis Hamilton and his new contract will extend his spell with the Brackley-based team to nearly a decade.

Journalist Pedro Fermin Flores now believes that Wolff has bigger plans for Allison at Mercedes.

The Austrian CEO is only 52 but may have ambitions to take on other roles during his career.

It may explain why Allison has signed the length of contract that he did.

Wolff has bigger plans for Allison at Mercedes – Flores

Posting on social media after the announcement of Allison’s new deal, Flores said: “Toto wants James to be his possible replacement. [James] Allison would have signed an extension of the contract beyond 2026.

“A date on which Wolff’s new agreement with @MercedesAMGF1 also ends “in principle.”

It’s an interesting thought from Flores as it’s hard to imagine Mercedes on the grid without Wolff in the garage.

He’s overseen more than 10 years of action with the team and led them to numerous championships.

Wolff will recognise that Allison is an incredibly useful asset to Mercedes and that may explain why he sees him as his potential successor.

With so much change behind the scenes in Formula 1 right now, it makes sense for Wolff to start making plans for the future even if he doesn’t plan to move on for at least a few more years.