Current Mercedes

Mercedes GP

FIA Entry: Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team
Car 7: Michael Schumacher
Car 8: Nico Rosberg
Engine: Mercedes V8
Team Principal: Ross Brawn
Technical Director: Bob Bell
Race Engineer Car 7: Mark Slade
Race Engineer Car 8: Tony Ross

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2010
Races Entered 19
Race Wins 0
Pole Positions 0
Fastest Laps 0
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

Team History

The Mercedes team history splits into two parts. In 1954 the famous pre-war Silver Arrows entered the F1 world championship and recorded a 1-2 at their first race. Fangio went on to win the drivers championship that year and again in 1955. Mercedes withdrew at the end of the 1955 season after the accident which killed 80 spectators at Le Mans which involved one of their cars.

The current team entered F1 in 2010 after Mercedes bought Brawn Grand Prix. Brawn Grand Prix, winners of the Drivers Championship, with Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.

Prior to the Honda takeover in 2006 the team had raced under the name of British America racing which had acquired the assets and race entry of the Tyrrell F1 team in 1999. BAR competed in 118 races without a single victory. The high points for the team were 2 pole positions (both for Button – San Marino 2004 and Canada 2005) and 2nd in the constructors championship in 2004.

Tyrrell were amongst the most successful private F1 teams taking part in 463 Grands Prix, scoring 33 victories and 3 Drivers Championships, all with Jackie Stewart.

2010

Having replaced Button and Barrichello with Nico Rosberg and 7 times WDC Michael Schumacher many expected great things of the new Mercedes team in 2010 but they had an indifferent season.

Rosberg managed 3 podiums for the team but Schumacher, coming back from retirement, struggled with the new cars, tyres and limited testing under the revised regulations. The team finished 4th in the Constructors Championship.

2011

For 2011 Mercedes retain the same driver line up and are hoping for better things from their MGP W02 chassis.

 

[RasputinLives]

Wasn't there one where Alonso and Hamilton raced each other down a hotel corridor to get a lift?

 

[racecub]

Yes there was, it's a mercedes ad and had Mika Hakinnen in as well, it's in that link I posted earlier( i think that's the one)

 

[Mephistopheles]

Yes and Mika was already there but that was a Santander advert.

I think I'm going to rephrase the question.

Given the amount of money Merc have paid Lewis will they use him to sell Merc cars?

Even though he has just bought a bloody Ferrari.

Edit..

I say no. what do you say....

 

[Hamberg]

Bovered?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Fine then..

 

[cider_and_toast]

In answer to your question Mephistopheles I would say no they won't use him to sell cars. Certainly not directly in TV ads anyway. In the print media or online they may link pictures of Hamilton or Hamilton in his car, alongside Mercedes car pictures, but that's about it. When you think about it, there aren't that many car ads on TV these days. I can't remember the last time I watched a Mercedes ad.

It could be argued that Mercedes reach around 5 million viewers in the UK just by running in F1. There's no need to advertise on top of that.

 

[racecub]

Yes and Mika was already there but that was a Santander advert.

I think I'm going to rephrase the question.

Given the amount of money Merc have paid Lewis will they use him to sell Merc cars?

Even though he has just bought a bloody Ferrari.

Edit..

I say no. what do you say....

No it was a mercedes advert. For Mercedes Mclaren in 2007, it wasn't Santander.
I'm sure Nico and Lewis have done an advert for Mercedes road cars, but I don't know if Itwas just shown on Mercs site? I'll see if I can find It.

 

[racecub]

I found this, but it's not the one I was looking for

 

[racecub]

 

[racecub]

 

[cider_and_toast]

I have never seen that advert broadcast on any UK telelvision channel.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Neither have I but it's a pretty good ad though..

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

It's noticeable how all the car ads on UK television now are for all the crap cars that no one with a brain would want to buy.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Such as?

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Chevrolets, Kias (OK they are actually pretty good for the price), Vauxhalls, French things - generally 'crossover' vehicles which are the car equivalent of white goods. I don't have a problem with those but the ads try to portray them as 'sporty' (i.e doing skateboard tricks, nipping around town and hiding in little niches from the other evil cars out there) where they're not sporty at all.
OK Audi do advertise quite regularly but it's rare to see adverts for either the top sellers (Ford Fiesta, Focus, VW Golf) on primetime TV (ITV, Sky) or performance cars - Aston, Porsche etc.

 

[Dash Racing]

it's rare to see adverts for either the top sellers (Ford Fiesta, Focus, VW Golf) on primetime TV

It's not worth the money to heavily advertise something that already sells well.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Given the amount of money Merc have paid Lewis will they use him to sell Merc cars?

They are using him to sell cars. They are using F1 to sell cars. A friend of mine sold his Nissan GTR when Lewis won the championship last year and went out and bought some beast of an AMG. He then got a Lewis Hamilton wings badge made up and stuck it next to the AMG badge. I think there is probably less value to a 30 second commercial break than having a car with your badge on it win 11 races in a year at the hands of one of the most high profile sporting talents in the world.

Formula 1 itself is a much bigger ground than the breaks.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Two Mercedes TV adverts featuring Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg from recent times.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/fo...2/Lewis-Hamilton-Nico-Rosberg-argue-best.html

 

[Mephistopheles]

I meant directly in actual ads on telly but it doesn't matter cuz I'm bored with the subject now...

 

[FB]

Back to the main topic, reports are that Hamilton and Rosberg will be "working much closer together" now they have a proper challenge. I suppose this sort of puts Vettel's "I'm the first driver to beat the Mercedes in a straight fight" quote in to context as, as refreshing as Daniel Ricciardo's wins last season were, we knew Red Bull weren't really challenging at the pointy end of the grid.