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Ferrari has made changes to return to the top - Allison

ESPN Staff
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Technical director James Allison believes Ferrari has put in place the necessary changes to return to championship-winning ways in the coming years.

Allison rejoined Ferrari this year from Lotus and has arrived at Maranello during a period of transition as the team updates its wind tunnel and reshuffles its technical team. Working alongside director of engineering Pat Fry, Allison believes he has returned to the team at the right time.

"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."

Allison is expecting a shakeup in the order with next year's rule changes, but believes the biggest teams will still come out on top.

"Ferrari's target is always to win. As far as how next year will work out, 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. However, I think - notwithstanding the size of the changes - over the years it's been fairly clear that the teams, although they're hundreds of people in different places end up producing cars independent of one another that come together and are very competitive with one another and I would expect that to be true next year as well.

"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."

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