2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Vaexa]

Not altogether surprising that Elliott is leaving after falling on the zeropods sword, but it's still a massive blow to Mercedes' technical strength and depth. He's been in F1 longer than some current drivers are old, all in aero-related roles, and has been with Mercedes since 2012 - essentially since right before they became a top team. Even if he didn't work out as TD, this is a big loss for the team.

[ValeVida46]

Not altogether surprising that Elliott is leaving after falling on the zeropods sword, but it's still a massive blow to Mercedes' technical strength and depth. He's been in F1 longer than some drivers are old, all in aero-related roles, and has been with Mercedes since 2012 - essentially since right before they became a top team. Even if he didn't work out as TD, this is a big loss for the team.

He certainly had his strengths. But in this rule regime we have 2 seasons of Mercedes being unable to consistently challenge for wins.
He had 2 bites of the cherry, and only since Allison took over the reigns did we start to see a more consistent performance from the team. This was stepping away from Eliott's zero pod vision.
It's entirely possible he could not get to grips with the ground effect formula, and him vacating his seat leaves room for someone with a better grasp of that.

[Vaexa]

Not altogether surprising that Elliott is leaving after falling on the zeropods sword, but it's still a massive blow to Mercedes' technical strength and depth. He's been in F1 longer than some drivers are old, all in aero-related roles, and has been with Mercedes since 2012 - essentially since right before they became a top team. Even if he didn't work out as TD, this is a big loss for the team.

He certainly had his strengths. But in this rule regime we have 2 seasons of Mercedes being unable to consistently challenge for wins.
He had 2 bites of the cherry, and only since Allison took over the reigns did we start to see a more consistent performance from the team. This was stepping away from Eliott's zero pod vision.
It's entirely possible he could not get to grips with the ground effect formula, and him vacating his seat leaves room for someone with a better grasp of that.

On the contrary, the last thing this team needed is more brain drain.

[mstar]

I am quite sure he probably resigned over 1 month ago. The writing was on the wall when lewis's comments when the 2023 car first came out and he said "they didnt listen to me etc" and Toto saying they will scrap the technical direction they are going and change aero philosophy. Maybe James goes back as TD and CTO / CTO??

[mkay]

Not altogether surprising that Elliott is leaving after falling on the zeropods sword, but it's still a massive blow to Mercedes' technical strength and depth. He's been in F1 longer than some drivers are old, all in aero-related roles, and has been with Mercedes since 2012 - essentially since right before they became a top team. Even if he didn't work out as TD, this is a big loss for the team.

He certainly had his strengths. But in this rule regime we have 2 seasons of Mercedes being unable to consistently challenge for wins.
He had 2 bites of the cherry, and only since Allison took over the reigns did we start to see a more consistent performance from the team. This was stepping away from Eliott's zero pod vision.
It's entirely possible he could not get to grips with the ground effect formula, and him vacating his seat leaves room for someone with a better grasp of that.

On the contrary, the last thing this team needed is more brain drain.

Elliott was out of his depth in this current ruleset. His zeropod concept has been an utter failure. If anything, his departure gives Mercedes the chance to hire a heavy hitter from a rival team.

[214270]

As I understand it zeropod was at the crossover between Allison leaving and Elliot taking over, so responsibility is shared somewhat?

Elliot’s problem was being headstrong and not yielding when the concept showed limited promise. Pride I suspect played a part in his reluctance to abandon early.

[j_ste]

Always sad to see the long timers move on but its not a bad thing to have some changed every now and then.

Be interesting to see how he is replaced

[ing.]

As I understand it zeropod was at the crossover between Allison leaving and Elliot taking over, so responsibility is shared somewhat?

Elliot’s problem was being headstrong and not yielding when the concept showed limited promise. Pride I suspect played a part in his reluctance to abandon early.

I remember at the first test of the ‘22 zero-sidepod car, Ted Kravitz was positively orgasmic over the car and in a gushing interview with Elliot was goading him on, prompting him to declare the superiority of his magnificent creation but Elliot very sheepishly refrained—maybe they had seen some troubling data already—and seemed very unsure of his concept, so I don’t think pride would have been a factor.

Probably more related to taking a huge risk on a new, not-well-understood concept versus trying to finesse the original concept to something more useable so as to achieve the predicted analytical performance they succumbed to originally.

[Cs98]

As I understand it zeropod was at the crossover between Allison leaving and Elliot taking over, so responsibility is shared somewhat?

Elliot’s problem was being headstrong and not yielding when the concept showed limited promise. Pride I suspect played a part in his reluctance to abandon early.

I remember at the first test of the ‘22 zero-sidepod car, Ted Kravitz was positively orgasmic over the car and in a gushing interview with Elliot was goading him on, prompting him to declare the superiority of his magnificent creation but Elliot very sheepishly refrained—maybe they had seen some troubling data already—and seemed very unsure of his concept, so I don’t think pride would have been a factor.

Probably more related to taking a huge risk on a new, not-well-understood concept versus trying to finesse the original concept to something more useable so as to achieve the predicted analytical performance they succumbed to originally.

I think you are mistaking Ted's fever dreams for Mike Elliott not believing in his concept. It would be unprofessional to claim it's a winner before ever racing. It's a reflection on Ted, not ME.

[dans79]

Personally I think a lot of it has to do with him not really being cut out for the limelight. In the modern era, if you have a position at the top of the food chain , you are expected to been in front of the camera answering questions .


Imo, Mike always looked uncomfortable dealing with the media, even when they were asking him tee-ball level questions.

[Luscion]

I'm curious to see who Merc replaces him with and if they go after a high profile name from another team. Does anyone know if his position was one of the three excluded from the budget cap?

[dans79]

I'm curious to see who Merc replaces him with and if they go after a high profile name from another team. Does anyone know if his position was one of the three excluded from the budget cap?

I assume Allison will just take on a dual role position.

[Cs98]

Personally I think a lot of it has to do with him not really being cut out for the limelight. In the modern era, if you have a position at the top of the food chain , you are expected to been in front of the camera answering questions .


Imo, Mike always looked uncomfortable dealing with the media, even when they were asking him tee-ball level questions.

I wouldn't consider Newey or Waché to be cut out for the limelight either, they are not on camera personalities and no one in the team is asking them to be. Interviews are far and few between. In fact, if your technical heads are being asked to be on camera personalities instead of focusing on their job there's probably a priority issue in the team, coming from the very top. The TP should stand and take the questions and the heat, but protect your technical people and let them get on with the job undisturbed.

[the EDGE]

Personally I think a lot of it has to do with him not really being cut out for the limelight. In the modern era, if you have a position at the top of the food chain , you are expected to been in front of the camera answering questions .

Imo, Mike always looked uncomfortable dealing with the media, even when they were asking him tee-ball level questions.

I doubt that. If Adrian Newey refused to appear for the media, do you think Merc would turn home down?

[organic]

Elliott was clearly a key component to the 8 consecutive world championships and therefore one of the most successful engineers in the sport, otherwise he simply never would've been promoted to the TD role. Has the last 2 years reflected in a stellar way on him? Nobody could argue it has I think.

But to ignore it or claim it's going to make things better I think is having your blinders on.. The loss of further key technical staff that has already been happening on some scale of late to Merc is a little worrying