© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Toto Wolff comments on CTO Mike Elliott’s departure from Mercedes, and says Mike was his “number one employee for many, many years”.
Earlier this week, Mercedes announced that the team’s Chief Technical Officer Mike Elliott is departing the team.
While some are speculating that Elliott’s departure was a result of the issues Mercedes has been struggling with for the past two years, team boss Toto Wolff says that’s not the case.
“No, Mike was my number one employee for many, many years in terms of how he performed,” the Austrian told Sky Sports F1.
“We are going to miss one of the most clever people in the industry. It was just a hard toll on him over those many years and I find it very remarkable that somebody can say: ‘You know what, I need to do something else.’
“If somebody is strong and say, ‘I’m done with it for the time being’, that’s good.”
Toto added the team’s development direction is never down to one single person.
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“It is never the decision of a single person. I think we as a group are trying to build the quickest racecar and obviously we were so far down the route with that concept of a car that we thought maybe we got on top of it.
“We didn’t. That’s why we changed it. And we put lots of plasters on the car in order to be more competitive, like we see now, but that hasn’t got any correlation [with Elliott’s departure].
Asked whether Elliott leaving will impact the development of Mercedes’ 2024 car, the Austrian said:
“It’s no single person’s fault if a car doesn’t perform, it’s also not one single person that makes the car faster.
“We have such a strengths in the organisation that you can take one out and everybody else is going to cover that and the other way around.
“So I don’t think that’s going to change anything for next year,” he concluded.
