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Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.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

 

[F1Brits_90]

he very successful todays "serious comment but forgetting the huge amount of irony" award goes to

Ross Brawn!

 

[FB]

Toto fancies a Mercedes B team, such as Ferrari now have with Sauber: Mercedes open to idea of F1 B-Team

I'm not sure what brand Mercedes could use for this as looking at their Wiki page Daimler AG owns AMG, already associated with the main team, Maybach, not much or a racing heritage there, and Smart, struggling to see how that brand would work in F1. Have I missed any other brands Merc have access to? Suppose they could use their truck division like Leyland did with Williams back in the 80's.

 

[Titch]

Now that’s a thought F1 racing trucks.

 

[RasputinLives]

Toto fancies a Mercedes B team, such as Ferrari now have with Sauber:

They used to have one called Williams I remember.

Seriously though does anyone wonder if by 2025 the grid will just have Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and other teams owned by them with different brand names?

 

[Hamberg]

 

[siffert_fan]

Brown urges Liberty to press ahead despite threats - Pitpass.com

Personally, I agree with Brown.

Having grown up following F1 in the Coventry-Climax and Cosworth eras, I, for one would not miss the manufacturers. It would make the drivers MUCH more a part of the results than they are now, and, if the rules were relaxed to reflect the lower budgets that would go with the loss of the manufacturers, there could very well be an influx of new, highly imaginative teams which would make the sport vastly more interesting than it is today.

 

[Greenlantern101]

If they don't change the money distribution F1 is doomed to fail. It has to happen even if Mercedes and Ferrari quit. I'm sure they would sulk for a few years but then come back in. They need F1 as much as F1 needs them.

 

[Bleu]

I built a calculator where 75% would be shared equally, 12,5% historically and 12,5% on season points. While in real-life Ferrari got 180 million (most) and Haas 19 (least), in that calculation numbers would have been 130,2 and 73,8.

 

[olegg]

Compare 2017 vs 2018

 

[olegg]

 

[The Artist.....]

So, Esteban Ocon effectively confirmed today that he was asked to move over for Hamilton by Toto Wolff in Monaco:

https://www.planetf1.com/news/ocon-bows-down-to-mercedes-team-orders/

In the past, Sauber were castigated for helping Ferrari; teams consist of 2 cars. If other teams start helping the factory Merc (or Ferrari) out, then this is the death of F1.

 

[Bill Boddy]

So Ocon had to follow team orders to placate Hamilton; maybe he and van Doorne should form a club.

 

[siffert_fan]

Maybe if Ocon had been allowed to offer some resistance, Hamilton wouldn't have found the race as boring as he claims it was!

 

[The Artist.....]

I’d be looking at whether this is Mercedes bringing the sport into disrepute... it is certainly akin to cheating, not least as they were fighting for position...

 

[Il_leone]

Ocon actually might be kicking himself because he could had nabbed 5th place if he held station

 

[FB]

I'm with The Artist..... on this one if that is true, and let's be honest just because it is on the internet is no guarantee that it is. The FIA should be investigating as no team should be able to order another out of the way on track regardless of whether they "own" the driver or supply their engines. I presume Force India don't get the power units for free?

If Sauber or Haas were made to do the same by Ferrari I suspect Toto would be apoplectic.

 

[cider_and_toast]

And watch as absolutely nothing will come of this.

 

[RasputinLives]

If it had been LeClerc getting out of the way of Vettel we'd have never heard the end of it.

 

[cider_and_toast]

“It was pointless to fight with him, especially as he had new tyres.”

This is now known as the Couthard definition whereby a slower car should under no circumstances hold up a faster one if the slower car is not in the championship hunt. I.E. Ricciardo leading the race in a knackered car holding up Vettel is absolutely fine. Ocon in a Force India (regardless of engine contracts etc) holding up Hamilton for 5th place, oh no, not fine.

Asked if there was an ‘unwritten rule’ that Mercedes-powered Force India were not to make things difficult for the Silver Arrows, Ocon answered: “Maybe.”

I wonder if he'll have a different opinion if he's in third place with a lap or two to go and has Hamilton or Botty breathing down his neck?

Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure then got confirmation from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff that Ocon had been ordered to move aside.

“Yes, because that’s the way it is,” Wolff simply said.

The only thing that makes me wonder about this being actually true is that Wolff is normally very very political in the way he responds to these sorts of questions. It doesn't sound like a Wolff response. Lauda on the other hand would have something like that.

As it is, I've looked around the interweb-a-me-bob and none of the more major F1 outlets are reporting this or are in any way up in arms about it so it looks like nothing is going to happen.

 

[RasputinLives]

As it is, I've looked around the interweb-a-me-bob and none of the more major F1 outlets are reporting this or are in any way up in arms about it so it looks like nothing is going to happen.

All those freebies, hospitality and 'exclusives' they butter up the mainstream media with really come in handy for this sort of thing. Let's face it Sky F1 virtually live in the Mercedes hospitality area.