Elliott’s shock departure from Mercedes was announced earlier this week ahead ꧙of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The 49-year-old was Mercedes ch👍ief technical officer🌺 after swapping roles with James Allison earlier this year.

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

After a tough 2022 campaign, Mercedes shockedꩵ everyone by sticking with the no si🌳depods again for this year.

• Hamilton reacts to Mercedes chief te🦋chnical officer 🦄Elliott’s exit

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

However, Wolff has denied💮 that෴ it played a significant factor in Elliott’s departure.

“No, it’s never the decision of a single person,” Wolff said. “We asඣ 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 lots of plasters on the car to be more competitive 𒁃like we’ve seen now. That hasn’t got any correlation.”

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

“Mike wa♕s my number one employee for ma🍌ny, many years in terms of how he performed,” he added.

“We’re going to miss one of the most clever people in the industry. 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 w🌞ith it’ it’s good.”