Elliott’s shock departure from Mercedes was announced earlier this week ahead o🦄෴f the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The 49-year-old was Mercedes chief tech🧸nical officer after swapping roles with James Allison earlier this year.

Ellioꩲtt was Mercedes technical director between 2021 and 2023, overseeing the design of the team’s infamous ‘zero sidepod’ design.

After a tough 2022 campaign, Mercedes shocked everyone by stickin♔g with the 🥀no sidepods again for this year.

• Hamilton react🍷s to Mercedes chief technical of𒁏ficer Elliott’s exit

It proved to be the incorrect decision as Mercedes dropped behind Aston Martin - and further away fro𓂃m Red Bull.

However, Wolff has 🌼denied that it play𝐆ed a significant factor in Elliott’s departure.

“No, it’s never the decision of a single perso🅘n,” Wolff said. “We as a group, we’re trying to build the quickest race car and obviously we were so far down the route with that concept of car that we thought maybe we’d get on top of it but we didn’t. 

“That’s why we changed it and put lot꧅s of plasters on the car🌳 to be more competitive like we’ve seen now. That hasn’t got any correlation.”

Wolff was very complimentary of Elliott and the𓂃 impact he✅ made on the team during his 11-year stint.

“Mike was my number one employee for many, many years in terms of how 🙈he performed,” ♛he added.

“We’re going to miss on🐲e of the most clever people in the ind𝔉ustry. It was just a hard toll on him over those many years. I find it very remarkable that somebody can say ‘you know what I need to do something else’ rather than holding on to this. If anyone is strong and says ‘I am done with it’ it’s good.”