Lewis Hamilton hits back at claims that Mike Elliott’s Mercedes exit is ‘his fault’

Mike Elliott left the Mercedes Formula 1 team in November this year.

Lewis Hamilton hits back at claims that Mike Elliott’s Mercedes exit is ‘his fault’

Lewis Hamilton (Via IMAGO)

The 2023 Formula 1 season has ended at the culmination of last week’s Abu Dhabi GP and the season has proved very up and down for the Mercedes team. While their W14 machinery was extremely unpredictable throughout the campaign, some interesting things took place off track as well for them.

Mike Elliott, the former Mercedes technical officer, left the team in November, and a lot was made of it back then. While the season has come to an end, The former 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton has once again brought it into the limelight and indicated that he did not have a role to play in Elliott’s exit.

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While talking about the same in an interview recently, he made it quite clear that he has tremendous respect for Mike Elliott but Mercedes wanted to follow a different direction going forward and decided to part ways with the British engineer.

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First of all, I would like to emphasize that it is not my fault that Mike Elliott left us. I have known Mike since my McLaren days. I had huge respect for him because he was so smart and I was able to learn so much from him. But we are all part of a team in which the pieces of the puzzle have to fit together. It's never just about one person. James has leadership qualities. Probably more than any other engineer I've met so far.
Hamilton said, as reported by Auto Motor Sport.

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have got a lot riding on 2024

While Toto Wolff and Co. have made substantial changes in the Mercedes team building up to next year, they have a lot of hopes for their 2024 campaign. It has been two years since Mercedes has been seen fighting for the world championship and thus, the heat is really on them to deliver.

Toto Wolff (Credits: Imago)
Toto Wolff (Credits: Imago)

The Brackley-based team has had a huge struggle under the current set of regulations and just has not been able to get on top of them completely. Their 2023 campaign exposed quite a few of their weaknesses and Toto Wolff recently admitted that considering the lackluster performance of the W14, they will change every component on their 2024 car.

Lewis Hamilton is desperate to have a real go at the coveted world championship again and if Mercedes gets everything right during the winter break, there could arise a situation in 2024 where Mercedes is seen locking horns with the mighty Red Bull Formula 1 team.

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