Lewis Hamilton’s long term ally who worked with F1 legend at McLaren leaves Mercedes in shock exit
MERCEDES chief technical officer Mike Elliott has announced his resignation with immediate effect.
Elliott, 49, has left the team after 11 years in wake of the eight-time champions’ failure to win a race this season.
Elliott’s surprise departure comes just six months after swapping his role, and moving back to his previous factory-based position in Brackley.
He was working for McLaren as an aerodynamicist when Hamilton entered Formula One in 2007.
Together, they won Hamilton’s first world championship in 2008.
The Englishman then joined Mercedes as head of aerodynamics in 2012 following a spell with Renault/Lotus.
He was a central figure in their eight consecutive constructors’ championship wins from 2014-2022.
The team also won seven consecutive drivers’ titles from 2014-2021, six with Lewis Hamilton and one with Nico Rosberg.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Elliott’s exit was his own decision.
Elliott told staff on Monday evening and is now expected to serve a period of gardening leave before he decides what is next for his career.
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He said: “It has been one of the great privileges of my career to be part of this Mercedes team.
“During the past six months, I have enjoyed developing the technical strategy that we hope can provide the foundations of the team’s next cycle of success.”
Elliott’s promotion to technical director in July 2021 – in preparation for the 2022 season, for which F1 introduced its biggest regulation changes for 40 years – was not a success.
James Allison had been director since 2017, and the change was met with scepticism within the F1 paddock.
The team chose a radical design philosophy which became known as the “zero-sidepod” concept, which has seen Mercedes’ supremacy plummet.
It was very different from that employed by Red Bull, who have gone on to dominate the last two seasons.
Mercedes won only one race in 2022, with George Russell in Brazil, and have failed to repeat that success this year.
There are three races remaining, starting in Brazil on Sunday.