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The story behind the Mercedes power struggle

James Allison is the latest high-profile F1 technical brain to be welcomed into Mercedes. But the journey that led the team to recruiting him carries with it some tales of caution he would do well to be aware of when he starts on March 1

Back in April 2013 I was invited to dinner with Ross Brawn and Toto Wolff, at Mercedes' request, over the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

It was a predictably civilised affair, held in an Italian restaurant at the swish Sofitel, near the circuit. The dinner had been arranged by Mercedes' F1 comms chief and was ostensibly an exercise in imparting a tone of good relations between Wolff, newly appointed as the team's executive director, and Brawn, then team principal.

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