After one of Toto Wolff’s top lieutenants, chief technical officer Mike Elliott, left the company, Sky Sports reporter Ted Kravitz questioned Mercedes’ future.
Mercedes now faces a major challenge after yet another key member of the management “dream team” left.
Ted Kravitz, a seasoned reporter covering Formula 1 pit lanes, believes that. During the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend, he was reflecting on the Mercedes team’s future while speaking on his Sky Sports Ted’s Notebook program.
Prior to the Sao Paulo race, it was announced that Mike Elliott had left after 11 years with Mercedes. It came a little over six months after a job swap which saw James Allison take over the technical director role in the midst of the team’s relative lack of competitiveness over the last two seasons.
Kravitz wondered what effect that development would have going forward in terms of the team’s leadership. “Despite being in charge of the design group that made these last two cars so incorrect, Mike Elliott, their chief technical officer, was instrumental in so much of their success, and this is their first race since his departure,” he said.
“I ask myself, is the Mercedes dream team changing fundamentally now in a way that they can quickly bounce back and become that dream team again? James Allison is still there, Toto Wolff is still there, Andrew Shovlin is still there, but there has been some key departures – Andy Cowell, James Vowles, [Aldo Costa] the Italian engineer.
“And I’m just wondering, like all dream teams change, whether there is some transformation about this team, and whether they’re going through a bit of a change and whether that dream team ethic and quality can survive next year? Lewis Hamilton believes they can, so I think we have to believe they can as well, but that’s going to be a challenge going forward.”
Reacting to Elliott’s departure, both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell dismissed the suggestion that he had paid the price for Mercedes’ struggles over the last two years. “What we have to remember is nothing is down to one person. We do everything as a team,” said the seven-time world champion.
“Because the factory has so many moving components, no one person is solely to blame for our current situation; rather, a group of people is. It grieves me greatly to see Mike go. He and I go back to our McLaren days. He was there before I raced in Formula One for McLaren. Mike and I get along well very well. Working with him on this team has been a pleasure. He is really a bright person.
” He was someone I would always speak to on aerodynamics. He was amazing at explaining everything to me, so I learned a lot from him. But it’s his decision to move on and do something different. I wish him absolutely all the best and I’m super grateful for all his contributions over these years. I know whatever he’s going to do next, he’s going to be great because he’s a super brain.”
Russell continued, saying, “Mike has been a huge part of the team and it’s very important to remember that he was the chief aerodynamicist during all of the glory years. That is probably the most important role in any Formula 1 team, along with the technical director. Thus, I wish Mike well as he has played a significant role in that success.”