F1 Rumour: Mercedes To Fire Mike Elliott After Poor Performance

There have been a lot of concerns over Mercedes lacking performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix, and this has put a lot of questions on technical director Mike Elliott's future with the team.

Ralf Schumacher has spoken about the situation explaining there has been some "dispute" within the team over the zero-pod design, especially if Elliott is pushing for the design which is not working.

During an appearance on the Formel1.de YouTube channel, Schumacher explained:

“There has to be a dispute.

“Somehow the technical director must have managed to convince Toto Wolff again that the full strength of the concept can now be played out. And Toto, what should he do, he has to believe in his technical team.”

Schumacher added that the "tension was clear to see" within the team when everyone realised the design wasn't working.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton has also spoken out on the issues with the team, accusing them of not listening to his feedback on the troublesome car. Hamilton said after the Bahrain Grand Prix on the Chequered Flag podcast:

“Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car.

“Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need.

“And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’.”

Schumacher continued:

“I think that Lewis Hamilton, who usually talks about things in a very rosy and flowery way, addressed it very straight for his way of addressing things.

“George Russell too, who is still a young driver. That was very clear.

“They don’t find it that funny. Mercedes should just drive for victory.“I wouldn’t be surprised if the pecking order changes now.

“That also happened at Aston Martin. [Andrew] Green was basically transferred, they got a new one from Red Bull [Dan Fallows].

“And now something is going to happen at Mercedes. Because, I’ll say it again, with a technical director who believes that a concept works and pulls for it so hard, you can’t change your mind overnight. So that I think it’s problematic.

“That would be my feeling that something is changing.”

Add us as a preferred source on Google