Sky F1’s Craig Slater has questioned whether Lewis Hamilton’s influence at Mercedes led to Mike Elliott changing roles.

Elliott became Mercedes’ technical director in 2021, shifting James Allison into the position of chief technical officer.

Following an Elliott-led review and Mercedes’s struggles in the 2022 and 2023 campaigns, they reversed this role switch.

Elliott took over as chief technical officer once more, and Allison went back to being the technical director. Elliott spent 11 years with Mercedes, but he has since announced his departure from the team.

After Mercedes’ poor performance in 2022 and the contentious 2021 Abu Dhabi championship match, Hamilton’s future in Formula One appeared doubtful. Hamilton signed a contract extension with Mercedes through 2025 in spite of these setbacks.

Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 2023 season, he criticized Mercedes for not listening to his suggestions for the W14. Now, Slater is speculating as to whether Hamilton’s influence affected Mercedes’ choice to put Allison back in his old position.

Hamilton feels the right people are in place’
“It’s quite a significant movement bringing Allison back,” said Slater on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast before Elliott’s departure was confirmed. “Especially when you have promoted someone to a theoretically higher role.

“The rearrangement at Mercedes over the last two years, not saying Lewis was negative in any way in 2022, but there was a kind sobriety and restraint about the way he would speak.

And I sense now, he’s much more on the front foot again. I think he feels that yes, the building blocks and the right people are in place, in terms of where the car development is going.

“That brief comment I made was almost a reference to Mike Elliott, or to the engineers who aspire to take a different route than Mercedes’ current Red Bull trajectory?

“But Lewis seems to be getting the impression that, at the very least, the right people are in the right positions with Allison at the forefront.

“The question is, can they establish the goals and limitations at this time, and is Red Bull getting ahead of themselves a little bit? Is [Adrian] Newey competitive this winter on aero? It’s a significant question.