Alpine bolsters ranks with signing of former Mercedes F1 chief technical officer
Alpine has strengthened its F1 technical department with the signing of a former Mercedes man.
The Alpine Formula 1 team has announced the signing of former Mercedes chief technical officer Mike Elliott.
Elliott spent a hugely successful 11-year stint with Mercedes as the German manufacturer won eight consecutive constructors’ world championships before he left the team towards the end of 2023.
The 52-year-old Briton has joined Alpine as chief technical officer and will lead and oversee the technical and engineering functions at the team’s Enstone factory.
It will mark a second spell at Enstone for Elliott, who previously worked at the team as principal aerodynamicist from 2008 to 2012.
Elliott boasts a combined total of 23 years worth of F1 experience across his time at Renault, McLaren and Mercedes.
Elliott left Mercedes in the wake of the team’s failure to win a race during the 2023 F1 season and uncompetitive start to the ground-effect rules era which began in 2022.
Having played an important role in Mercedes’ domination of F1 between 2014-2021, first as head of aerodynamics, then technology director, things went awry for Mercedes when it chose a radical sidepod design philosophy known as the ‘zero-pod’ concept.
Elliott was initially moved into the CTO role as part of a major Mercedes reorganisation in early 2023 which saw James Allison return to the Silver Arrows as technical director.
Mercedes eventually dropped the ‘zero-pod’ design but it took the team until the start of the new engine regulations in 2026 to return to its previous level of competitiveness.
Mercedes has been supplying Alpine with its power units since the start of the 2026 season.
Alpine currently sits sixth in the constructors’ championship with 68 points after 16 races. The Anglo-French squad is nine points behind fifth-placed Racing Bulls.
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