– Formula 1 team Alpine has announced the signing of former Mercedes Technical Director Mike Elliott. Elliott will take on the newly created role of Technical Director at Alpine. In this role, he is to “be responsible for the technical and engineering areas at the Enstone site,” according to the team. Elliott will thus be the superior of Technical Director David Sanchez.
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For Elliott, the move to Alpine means a return to Enstone: He had already worked there as a senior aerodynamicist during the Renault and Lotus days. Afterwards, Elliott moved to Mercedes and became head of the aerodynamics department there. He helped the team prepare early for the new regulations for 2014 and won world championship titles in the following years in quick succession.
At Mercedes, Elliott soon rose to Technical Director and then to overall Technical Head. In doing so, he swapped positions with James Allison. Elliott left the Mercedes factory team in 2023 – after seven world championship titles in the Formula 1 drivers’ standings with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as well as eight world championship titles in the constructors’ standings.
What Toto Wolff said about Mike Elliott
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said at Elliott’s farewell: “Mike was one of the pillars of the team’s successes.” He described him as a “highly intelligent engineer” and “great team player” who not only made a “major contribution to the victories of our cars,” but also to “building the team culture at Mercedes.”
However, Elliott’s departure from Mercedes coincides with a downturn in form: Mercedes, the dominant team of the 2010s, experienced a false start into the new Formula 1 era from 2022 with the “Zero-Pod” concept.
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The vehicle design was then under Elliott’s overall technical responsibility. He finally left Mercedes in 2023 after the concept did not prevail and the great successes of previous years failed to materialize.
What Alpine expects from Elliott
Now Elliott is taking on a leading technical position in Formula 1 at Alpine for the first time again. The team formulates its expectations of Elliott as follows: “With Mike’s arrival in Enstone, the team strengthens its technical capabilities. The goal is to build on the improved performance on the track and reduce the gap to the four top teams.”
Compared to the 2025 season, Alpine has already taken a step forward in the 2026 season: In its first year as a Mercedes customer team, the team is currently fighting Racing Bulls for fifth place in the Formula 1 constructors’ standings.
Read more Ex-Mercedes Chief Technical Officer Mike Elliott: This is what he is supposed to achieve at Alpine
