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Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.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.

 

[The Artist.....]

Mercedes GP is NOT changing to a new wind tunnel - merely changing the scale that they have been running on.

Furthermore, at the end of 2008, Honda had been running on 4 wind tunnels around the world...

 

[racecub]

So Honda had one wind tunnel that wasn't calibrated properly, they then spent money using four different wind tunnels around the world in 2008, only to drop out of f1 at the beginning of 2009

 

[The Artist.....]

Yep, Honda spent 300million dollars developing the 2009 Honda, and then withdrew before it even turned a wheel!

 

[Il_leone]

Honda's problem was they were run like a corporate division waiting for top brass to make the final decision in which Button was very frustrated by and told them to get Ross BRawn on board or he will go

I am hearing Mercedes have got too many cooks now especially when I don;t see how Geoff Willis role is different from Aldo Costa or Bob Bell's?


I thought I read somewhere that Mercedes do not intend to increase their funding for the F1 team not exactly the words Hamilton wants to hear !

 

[teabagyokel]

A word too for just how unbelievably shit Mercedes were in this race. They had to pit twice because of tyre wear. Tyre wear? Pirelli bring compounds two steps too hard and Mercedes still struggle to manage the tyres. What do they do, apply an industrial heater to the sidewall?

Schumacher qualified a brilliant 5th, and creates a huge amount of overtakes for other people; if Mercedes are still doing the overtaking stats that'll be a good day for them. Rosberg was running a car from earlier in the season, and still beat his team-mate in the race despite qualifying in the arse-end of nowhere.

What the hell were you thinking, Lewis? That's 5 without points and Shanghai could not be further away. It is difficult to believe that their development could have been this poor.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

...but Lewis won't be driving this year's car next year and why the hell would Mercedes bother to develop this car, anyway? They realised a long time ago that this year's car was a failure and they know why. The last part of the year has been a series of testing sessions for them, albeit in race conditions. Of course they aren't competitive. If they do find themselves competitive at the moment, then that is nothing more than a bonus.

 

[Josh]

It has been the same story every season since 2009 though. They're only going backwards. I'd like to believe that next year will be better and they'll be up there fighting with the front runners and have gotten on top of their tyre problems (which would amaze me considering this has been their problem for the past three seasons) but I'm not going to believe it until I see it.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Well, me niether, but I'm not going to write them off as incapable either.

 

[The Pits]

Did they not do something similar last year?

Also, with the stability of the regulations, surely development this year carries over?

That said, it seems to be tyre management that they are struggling with, along with high speed cornering, my worry would be as per the above, and the fact that the tyres are changing for next season.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

They screwed up with the concept of their car regarding double DRS and coander exhausts and there was no room for a U-turn. Pretty much a blank canvas next year.

 

[RickD]

Josh - It is not just since 2009, it is since 2004 with a blip in 2009 when they got it right for a change.

 

[The Pits]

The double DRS was being tested at the end of 2011 in the last 3 races I believe, and the Coanda effect exhaust is a tricky concept to get right (see Red Bull for the struggle in this area)

The double DRS did seem to help them at the start of the year though, at China?

So, I agree that it is a blank canvas, and I am also not prepared to write them off, however, having been a staunch admirer of Brawn in the past, and having given the benefit of the doubt for the last few years, I am thinking that the 2013 car will be in a similar position to this years car.

2014 will depend on the level of the changes to the rule book..

 

[FB]

2014 will depend on the level of the changes to the rule book..

That depends on whether Mercedes hang about as a constructor for that long.

 

[The Artist.....]

Josh - It is not just since 2009, it is since 2004 with a blip in 2009 when they got it right for a change.

RickD

Nope, it's not even since 2004 - it's since 1999 - with just 2 small blips:
2004 (When no-one else (Except Ferrari) seemed too bothered about building cars that were fast...)
and 2009 (When the big teams got sucked into chasing KERS)....

Brackley F1 is a failure.

 

[Brogan]

They may be a failure but they have won the same number of WDCs as McLaren and one more WCC in the last 10+ years.

Yes, yes, McLaren are usually runners up but second is the first loser...

 

[FB]

Not much of a recommendation Brogan, I've won as many constructors titles as McLaren in the last 10 years. Might add that to my signature to go along with the Lance Armstrong comment.

 

[The Pits]

I wonder how the total of prize money over those years would stack up?

 

[Brogan]

Precisely my point FB.
So much is said about the potential to win more titles with McLaren but that's all it is, potential.

McLaren have failed miserably as a championship winning team over the last 10 or more years.

Anyway, I thought this particular discussion had been done to death?
Hamilton made it clear why he moved and Ron Dennis confirmed in an interview today that it was a failure to agree on the number of corporate commitments which ultimately forced Hamilton to leave.
So what if he wins nothing at Mercedes - he won't be doing any worse than he has at McLaren for the past 4 years.

 

[FB]

Well, there's a good chance he won't be winning any Grands Prix but if he has more time to spend with the missus then it might be the right move. Spending time at a corporate dinner or with Nicole Scherzinger, now let me think

 

[The Artist.....]

Brogan... There's still the winning of individual races, and the feel of being competitive! - in the last 3 years, McLaren have won 17 GPs. Mercedes have won 1.

Even if he is doing less commercial work, I can't see him being satisfied being stuck in the mid-field.... Just look at how JB's head fell in 2001, 2007 and 2008, when he had a hopeless car - some of this is attributed to him not getting on with bad cars, but I think there's a lot to be said about heads going down when not everything is going for them - LH's performance in the middle of 2009 had similar undertones - and hit a nadir in Silverstone....