Earlier this week Mercedes announced Elliott would be stepping down from his CTO role, seven months after swapping positions with technical director James Allison.
Elliott, who originally joined the squad in 2012 as head of aerodynamics, was hailed for his instrumental role in Mercedes' unprecedented streak of world championships in F1's turbo hybrid era.
He said the decision was his, and it would allow him to "pause and take stock, after 23 years of working flat-out in this sport, and then to find my next challenge".
Mercedes realised from the start of pre-season in testing that it had missed the mark with its F1 car for the second year running, which prompted another mid-season revamp. But team boss Wolff refuted claims that Elliott had paid the price for its performance woes.
"No, Mike was my number one employee for many, many years in terms of how he performed," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
"We are going to miss one of the most clever people in the industry. It was just a hard toll on him over those many years and I find it very remarkable that somebody can say, 'You know what, I need to do something else'.
"If somebody is strong and say, 'I'm done with it for the time being', that's good."
Source: Autosport