And he reckons as much despite the "visceral unpleasantness" that it can entail, especially during a spell of ground-effects grief for the Silver Arrows.
The former Lotus and Ferrari engineer first punched in at Brackley in early 2017, meaning he was on board for five of the eight consecutive constructors' championship crowns. But in April 2021, he assumed the more overarching role of chief technical officer.
While Allison was by no means removed from the grand prix operation, he was now one step back, partially spared the daily cut and thrust and had the capacity to adopt other projects such as the America's Cup sailing competition.
However, then came the landmark regulatory shift for 2022 that placed the emphasis on underbody aerodynamics. In real-world conditions with imperfections in the track surface, the size-zero sidepod architecture Mercedes pioneered too often failed to replicate the simulated class-leading levels of downforce.
The W13 and W14 have proved particularly capricious and unlike the unflappable Red Bull counterpart creations, only enjoy a narrow operating window.
The result was third in the standings last season. But a late glimmer – with George Russell winning both the Brazilian sprint and main races – suggested to Mercedes that on its day, the concept could still deliver. So, for the new season, it stuck to its design guns. Although it's slightly better off, sitting as the current runner-up, Mercedes still has fewer than half the points of Red Bull.
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff is proud of the 'no-blame' culture by which his squad operates. But in April of this year, with those results as the backdrop, the team reckoned technical director Mike Elliott and Allison had agreed they would be better off switching positions to bring about a change in fortunes. As such, two years and two weeks later, Allison was back on the front line of F1.
Speaking exclusively to Autosport, Allison says of returning to his old gig: "In F1, I don't think there's a better and more enjoyable job than being the technical director. It doesn't mean it's free from stress or anything, but the reward for every little creep and gain you make is absolutely huge in terms of the satisfaction it brings.
Source: Autosport