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Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.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

 

[Il_leone]

I know its early days in Formula E that they 1-2 in the championship but what the contract situation around De Vries and Van Doorne. Does either one of them want to be in F1 if they win Formula E?

 

[RasputinLives]

I imagine both would take it if they were to be offered it.

 

[F1Brits_90]

nick De Vries is impressing me alot & is probally added to talented drivers that F1 missed out on because his wallet wasn't big enough

 

[RasputinLives]

De Vries is a weird one because he was top dog in McLaren's junior programme for a long time. Very highly rated. Then he had a some really dodgy season, I mean like really dodgy - saw him throw races away at the last corner under no pressure. That sort of stuff. Then McLaren dropped him......and he suddenly came into form!

 

[Il_leone]

I am just thinking potential seat at Williams and possibly Aston Martin due to Merc influence in 2022

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't think Aston Martin is really an option given their drivers at the moment. Would they take a Williams seat over a Formula E world championship? Not too sure on that one. Get forgotten very easily. Better to be performing and winning in another formula maybe so people don't forget your talent.

I'll be 100% honest though. I don't see either bring in an F1 seat full time.

 

[F1Brits_90]

that is very true because its the same problem with Colton herta in indycar at the moment in my opinion we have got a driver who could be what numerous F1 bosses Bernie, Max, Liberty have been looking for since Mario Andretti, a quality driver who is American & young enough,. because they have had many great drivers in IndyCar over the last 10 years, but none have been viable because alot like Michael Andretti in 1993 they already in there late 20's or in their 30's Dixon, Newgarden, Hunter reay, Rahal, Marco Andretti.

but the problem with colton herta is as he has said himself, its tough because if your stuck in the midfield you might as well be winning races in indycar or Formula E so your potenial is realized instead of squandered. but it would also have to be a project as he would need to be in toro rosso style learning seat with promise of top seat

if I would get the call to go to Haas or something, it would be something I’d be interested in, but only if it was from a Ferrari-backed program, and then I had the opportunity to move up,

I’m not going to go over there and sign a three-year deal just with Gene Haas, but I’d sign a deal with Ferrari, and if they put me in a car like that, I would drive it and try to get up to a top team

I would be interested, of course. I think it’s kind of unrealistic to be, and almost arrogant, in a way, to just say, ‘Well, I need to be in a top three team.’ I think you have to work for it.

 

[F1Brits_90]

this has got to hurt Fernando Alonso & Ferrari, they worked extremely hard like all teams do over the winter to build new cars year in the making only to beat hamilton by 0.085s in Q2. despite alonso giving it everything & Lewis in idle mode

Motor racing-Mercedes sought to disguise engine advantage in 2014, says Lowe

Mercedes had such an advantage early in Formula One's V6 turbo hybrid era that they rarely used full power in qualifying for fear the rules would be changed to rein them in, according to former technical director Paddy Lowe.

www.reuters.com

I’ve seen Andy Cowell’s descriptions of it, much of which we didn’t really know at the time because they were busy with the work, not telling everyone what their problems were, It was a very, very tough period & they had absolutely no confidence. But I think as we got to the 1st test, certainly into the 2nd test, it became more clear that some others were in desperate disarray, mentioning no names, and that we were in reasonably good shape. Then we came with another upgrade in the Bahrain test, which was literally a bolt-on extra that was suddenly another 7 - 8 tenths in pure horsepower

dominance a fear at board level, the negative politics of looking too good, the thinking was if Mercedes had looked ridiculously good, then something would be done about it...there was a lot of tension over how good to look,” So imagine the scene: You’ve got Toto and the board of Daimler who are worried about the negative politics of looking too good.

You’ve got Bernie running around ‘saying this is all a nightmare, these engines are terrible’. Well, the thinking was if Mercedes had looked ridiculously good, then something would be done about it

In qualifying, we would never turn the engine up for Q1 & Q2. It was run in a sort of idle mode. The debate would then be how much to turn the engine up for Q3. I’d be getting it in the ear from (team boss) Toto (Wolff): ‘That’s too much, that’s too much’. And I’m thinking ‘but if we don’t get pole, we’ll look like a right bunch of mugs Through most of 2014, that engine was never on full power for qualifying

 

[Johnny Carwash]

It was kind of obvious what was going on at Mercedes in 2014, with gap the two drivers pulled out after the safety car period in Bahrain, when they romped away from the opposition.

 

[Il_leone]

I don't think Aston Martin is really an option given their drivers at the moment. Would they take a Williams seat over a Formula E world championship? Not too sure on that one. Get forgotten very easily. Better to be performing and winning in another formula maybe so people don't forget your talent.

I'll be 100% honest though. I don't see either bring in an F1 seat full time.

Do Mercedes want to stay in Formula E the long haul? Plus both are reserve drivers for Merc and Mclaren. I am wondering who would Mclaren sign if things go south with Ricciardo and Norris is poached

 

[F1Brits_90]

interesting that toto wolff has completely denied it. but i know who i believe because what has paddy lowe got to gain from this & he was 2nd in command only to niki & toto. so he wouldve been everywhere. we know how much toto loves sandbags

this seems to me like. toto embarrassed

I think Paddy must have been in a different place than I was,” he said. “There is no such situation that you turn back an engine just to have regulations tweaked in your direction.”

We were very competitive in 2014 and I think everybody could see that it was the start of a regulatory environment that wouldn’t have been changed anyway,”

 

[Il_leone]

Yes Mercedes were dominant but Ferrari did caught them up in the end. The main thing that irked me was the engine tokens and how it was difficult for Honda to get up to speed .. now partly Honda's fault and partly Mclaren but the whole thing just deterred other engine manufacturers joining

 

[The Artist.....]

Il_leone - add in that some manufacturers were rumoured to be using mule cars to test the engines, and were pounding around race tracks with suspiciously fast road cars!

 

[RasputinLives]

Not rumours. Everything but Honda was.

 

[F1Brits_90]

£9.56m per car per race in 2020 in comparsion 2021 is 2.26m per car per race. so they mercedes have currently spent less on lewis hamilton car this season, than they did at the season opener in 2020. another reason why budget caps were vastly overdue.

Mercedes F1 team spent over £324m to win in 2020

www.motorsport.com

 

[Brogan]

Regarding Monaco and Bottas' retirement, the gold bit is the 'nut' - the mechanic on the wheel gun didn't get it on properly before pulling the trigger and all of the teeth on the nut were stripped off, so there's nothing left to grip onto to undo it.
The same as rounding a hex nut.

The two bits on the spindle/shaft which are sticking out are spring loaded pawls, which prevent the nut (and wheel) falling off if it comes loose.

 

[cider_and_toast]

You would have thought that the wheel gun would have had an interlock so that it couldn't rotate until it was full home?

Just shows how much torque those guns have and how tight the nut is held on.

 

[Bill Boddy]

The name of a device which will fix this problem is "easyout", a tap which is the opposite of the direction of the usual direction. If the nut is a right handed one then the tap is a left hand one.

Wonderful what booking out of a site will do : a mislaid work suddenly returns in flashing lights. But then you may have do put it right when you come in again.

 

[FB]

Talk about kicking a man when's he's down, Toto says that Valterri was partly to blame as he didn't stop in the right place

Wolff partly blames Bottas for Monaco pitstop debacle

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff has claimed Valtteri Bottas was partly at fault for the pitstop debacle that ended his 2021 Monaco Grand Prix.

racingnews365.com

 

[FB]

Just shows how much torque those guns have and how tight the nut is held on.

Wheel Gun​

Wheel guns are pneumatic tools used to screw and unscrew the nuts that attach wheels to the car. The basic concept is the same as that used in any road car garage – but the guns used in F1 are technology of a higher order, with a high-flow rate spinning the guns at >10,000rpm, supplying torque of >3000Nm (they have a strong kick).

Eight guns are laid out for a pitstop (one for each wheel plus one spare for each gunner in case of failures). They are extensively customised by the teams but a recent rule change demands they be powered only by compressed air or nitrogen.

From here - McLaren F1 Playbook