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Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.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

Or surprised how incompetent their rivals all seem to be.

 

[Brogan]

Mercedes are looking slightly incompetent themselves right now.

They have used all 7 remaining engine tokens on "reliability" and future-proofing updates and on cue, Rosberg's engine shows signs of failure in FP3 so they revert him to the old engine.

Perhaps Mercedes should have just played it safe rather than risk losing WDC and WCC points due to engine failures.

 

[RasputinLives]

Greenlantern101 thats a PR way of going to the media and saying "look how great we are!" without sounding like they are bragging. Its also a dig at Ferrari. The war of words in the media between Merc and Ferrari is really heating up and you get the impression that Merc really want to embarrass Ferrari on home soil. They didn't need to bring that new engine and they did it to smash their rival. It might end up biting them in the ass though as Rosberg's is already looking faulty.

 

[sushifiesta]

Looks like those upgrades were needed to get pole, the moment you stand still in F1 is the moment you stop winning.

 

[Brogan]

I'm not so sure.

Rosberg's engine is 6 races old so is likely down a bit on power.

 

[RasputinLives]

Plus Hamilton was less than happy with his lap.

 

[sushifiesta]

Maybe it wouldn't have made the difference today but I don't think Mercedes should be criticised for introducing updates this weekend, even if it hasn't worked out for Rosberg so far.

 

[RasputinLives]

Wasn't a critiscm. Just pointing out they are trying to smash Ferrari on their on ground.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Rosberg should have been on the new engine for qualifying. He would then probably been second, with the penalty in twelfth. Even if both Ferraris had made good starts he would have finished no lower than fourt and with 12 points. Instead he got nothong out of the weekend.

I wonder what would have happened if it had been Hamilton on the old engine and Rosberg on the new one.

 

[RasputinLives]

This forum would have a lot more angry posts?

 

[The Artist.....]

Rosberg should have been on the new engine for qualifying. He would then probably been second, with the penalty in twelfth. Even if both Ferraris had made good starts he would have finished no lower than fourt and with 12 points. Instead he got nothong out of the weekend.

I wonder what would have happened if it had been Hamilton on the old engine and Rosberg on the new one.

Given that some (both here and elsewhere) believed that if Hamilton were disqualified following deflategate, that Rosberg should be banned for the next race (because that's the only fair choice), then i suspect this forum ( and Twitter) would have melted down!

 

[Brogan]

I wonder what would have happened if it had been Hamilton on the old engine and Rosberg on the new one.

Hamilton would still have stuck it on pole and gone on to win?

 

[sobriety]

Hamilton would still have stuck it on pole and gone on to have his engine throw itself to bits a couple of laps from the end?

 

[Brogan]

Just as plausible.

However, Rosberg's engine lunched itself because he turned it up to the max in an attempt to catch and pass Vettel.

 

[sobriety]

So Hamilton's would've done it when the team told him to go 'Hammertime' in the last few laps...

This site would've melted down at that!

 

[Brogan]

Unless he already had a lead.

 

[Incubus]

Aunties, uncles and balls etc...

 

[Bill Boddy]

Hamilton would still have stuck it on pole and gone on to win?

During the driver interviews before the race on Sunday Rosberg said that there had been another problem on the car which had slowed him down during qualifying. There was some work done on the car under parc ferme as shown by 06.09 - Technical Report Doc45 - Parc Fermé on Event & Timing information.

So it is quite likely that had Hamilton had the same car problems that Rosberg had it is quite possible that Hamilton would not have been on the front row let alone being in pole position. In this case a win for him would have been unlikely, a more likely scenario would have been a retirement whilst tryong to overtake Vettel..

 

[Brogan]

If, but, maybe.

No-one can possibly know what would have happened in an alternate timeline.

Maybe Rosberg and Vettel crashed in this alternate scenario, delaying the whole pack, and Merhi grabbed the win.

 

[teabagyokel]

Brogan - Maldonado jump start?

(Last time he jumped the start was Spa 2012...)