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Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.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

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Tweets from various journalists seem to suggest Brawn isn't heading to McLaren but their 'headline grabbing' signing might be someone different. Could be bollocks, dunno!

 

[KekeTheKing]

As soon as Lauda arrived I think it was clear.

Lauda just made it clear that he's currently in negotiations to retain Brawn. I certainly hope he stays on.

 

[FB]

Do Mercedes need Ross Brawn? They are awash with technical people, they have a team principal in waiting in Toto Wolf. Maybe it's time for Ross to work his magic elsewhere?

 

[KekeTheKing]

It would be very hard to argue that Mercedes are better off without Brawn.

 

[RasputinLives]

Indeed. I think Merc will miss him more than they think. Wolff is good but he's not got the Brawn factor.

 

[Il_leone]

Do you know something is not right with Mercedes because they were on a roll with 3 wins in 6 races but since then they seem to unable to match the front runners or never get their weekend right

I am not sure if the background issues surrounding Ross' future is affecting the team the way it is being managed because last year the impression was no one is making the decisions

the fact they short filled Rosberg meant their pace was overexaggerated or it is a serious error on the team if they want to fight with Red Bull

 

[Mephistopheles]

Is Ross leaving then?

 

[Jos the Boss]

I think they were both short fuelled for the, predicted, Ferrari battle

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles there was a conversation by the BBC during the race or in the forum with Ross and apparently he got a bit ruffled when asked about his future with the team

Ross wants a proper job he does not like to be in the boardroom.. he wants to be where the action is in the pitlane

there seems to be some not so complimentary things said about the management at Mercedes at the moment

For Ross - the only job he can do is team principal. He is going to leave Mercedes because if Paddy Lowe is promised team principal - I don;t see how they can demote him then it will the turn of the engineers - Bell, Costa, Willis one of those guys would have to lose to their jobs so Lowe can fit in

 

[Mephistopheles]

If that is true then I hope he ends up at McLaren...

 

[Il_leone]

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...edes-if-he-is-no-longer-in-charge-of-the-team

 

[Mephistopheles]

Intrigue I love it, now lets see the speculators and armchair pundits do their thing....

 

[Blog Zbod]

According to AMuS, Mercedes took the pit stop world record from Red Bull at Suzuka, 2.02 seconds. Webber's pit team held the old record at 2.05 seconds, but Rossberg's crew did both his final two stops in 2.02. The first was 2.15, so they averaged 2.06, also a record for a 3-stop race.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Just on 5 live that Ross Brawn is leaving. Did not say where he is going.

edit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24725406

 

[Bill Boddy]

Do I have to drop the pilot again or just refer to the Personnel -> Ross Brawn thread?

 

[F1ang-o]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111162
Hope springs eternal....

 

[Fenderman]

Good to see a commitment to keep racing to the end of the season. How's it go, "never give up" ?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Odd how when McLaren announced that they were going to try a different set up for the last race some where saying it was just an excuse for when they failed and now that Merc announce it, it is called a fighting spirit or never give up.....

 

[Fenderman]

Ross Brawn is talking about doing something to try and improve their chances in the last two races of this season. That's quite different from the messages emanating from the McLaren camp.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'm sorry Fenderman I don't see it that way, yes Mercedes are going to try something different to "Try" and improve one of their drivers performances but surely McLaren were doing the exact same thing why should the two events be differentiated as one being hailed as a gimmick and the other being called fighting to the last? It could be that Merc get to FP1 and find they are barking up the wrong tree just as McLaren did.

Not that I think Merc need to try anything new as Nico has been coping perfectly fine with the set up as it is for the last five races the only team he didn't beat last time out was RedBull and surely that is to be expected as things stand...

And surely Lewis was on for pole if it hadn't have been for a suspension failure and his race could have turned out completely different if not for that.

No sorry to me it sounds like a knee jerk reaction to a problem that doesn't exist whereas McLaren have got obvious problems that do exist and could maybe benefit from radical solutions and yet are shouted down as incompetent for trying them..