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Gottleib Daimler and Karl Benz were two pioneer builders of motor cars. Nazi propaganda led the world to believe that they were the first makers of automobiles, but this is not the case. They were predated by various makers of steam-powered machines - an automobile is not defined by having an internal combustion engine, else why would Daimler-Benz be investing heavily in fuel cell technology?
From 1900 on, Mercedes was the name under which Daimler sold cars. It was not until 1926 that the independent companies of Daimler and Benz completed protracted negotiations to merge and the marque, Mercedes-Benz, was formed. Prior to that, each company could look back on a history of motor racing involvement, a distinguished history so far as Mercedes was confirmed.
The new company was to enjoy success in motor racing with a series of brilliant sports cars (S, SS, SSK, SSKL) designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and, stripped of mudguards and headlights, they were also superb in grands prix racing, and mountain climbs.
By the end of 1930, the economic position in German was such that Mercedes-Benz cut back its competition programme to nearly nothing. When Hitler came to power, he realised that motor racing could be a powerful propaganda tool and his government offered a subsidy to a viable project. Two companies were successful, Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union. The direct government subsidy amounted to no more than ten-per-cent of either team's budget, but the rest was more than made up by the award of lucrative military contracts.
Of the two, Mercedes-Benz was the most successful even though, in 1936, it got its car wrong and withdrew before the end of the season. Between them, however, the two German teams were responsible for a Golden Age of technical development.
After WW2, Germany was excluded from international motor sport until 1950. Besides, Daimler-Benz and Auto Union had other problems to deal with, such as a divided Germany and the rebuilding of shattered factories. In the board room of Daimler-Benz, however, the value of racing as a development exercise and publicity vehicle was seen as part of the strategy of rebirth. The question was not if the company would return but when, and the decision depended partly on the health of the company and partly on international politics.
In early 1951 Mercedes-Benz discreetly tested the water by sending a pair of 1939 3-litre supercharged W163s to Argentina to compete in a couple of Formula Libre races. Karl Kling and Hermann Lang finished second and third in both, on each occasion beaten by Gonzalez's blown 2-litre Ferrari. It gave the company a small indication of the strength of the opposition but, more importantly, there had been no outcry about their participation.
Soon afterwards the board of Daimler-Benz sanctioned a return to racing the following year with a sports car based on production components with a pukka GP effort to follow. Under the direction of that great engineer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, a team of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coup‚s was built for racing in 1952 and they acquitted themselves well with the highlight being 1-2 at both Le Mans and in the Carrera Panamericana. This design was then retired, a production version was marketed, and a new F1 design was laid down for the start of the 2-litre formula.
A design team led by Uhlenhaut and Hans Scherenberg produced a car which commanded respect rather than excitement. No matter how much money and personnel a team has, success can never be guaranteed or else Ferrari would have won every race in the last thirty years, but Daimler-Benz's W196 was extremely successful, so all credit to it. The interesting thing remains that it was not copied. The reason for this is that it was a complete package of a sort which could only be compiled by a major manufacturer.
On July 4th, 1954, Mercedes-Benz returned to GP racing at Reims with three cars for Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann - one star and two second-string drivers who happened to be German. Externally, the cars were sensational for they were clothed in gorgeous fully-enclosed aerodynamic bodies which were ideally suited to Reims which was a high speed triangle of long straights with tricky corners at the end of each straight. This body has struck a chord in the imagination though W196s did not race in this form many times and they were actually not that clever.
Mercedes-Benz scored a 1-2 on its return, but some observers noticed that the cars looked a handful on the tighter corners at Reims and wondered how much aerodynamics had contributed to the win. If the stromlinienwagen had been been an advantage at Reims it was a handicap at Silverstone where the enclosed wheels made the car difficult to place in the corners and its handling was a problem. Fangio could finish no higher than fourth a lap down, and his car's battered bodywork told its own story. In the medium fast corners at Silverstone, the car would lurch from understeer to oversteer.
Mercedes-Benz covered that fact by claiming that the enveloping bodywork meant that Fangio had difficulty in placing his car in corners, and while they were spreading that story, they were busily making open-wheelers. Fangio, a sportsman, went along with the official line.
It was one of a whole string of occasions when the Mercedes-Benz PR machine put out a false story to preserve the image of Teutonic invincibility. At the very next race, Hermann Lang spun out of second place. The team blamed the driver, and the driver went along with the story, but film of the incident shows that the transmission locked up.
When the great prewar ace, Rudolf Caracciola, crashed his 300SL in Switzerland in 1952, a crash which finally ended his career, it was again officially driver error. Film of the crash reveals that a front wheel locked.
On the other hand, Fangio was rewarded with a Mercedes-Benz agency in Buenos Aires, Lang received a sinecure working for the Daimler-Benz Museum until the end of his days, and Caracciola was found a job demonstrating cars to NATO servicemen stationed in Germany. The company has always looked after its personnel, but its PR department has an appalling record of pedalling falsehoods.
Fangio succeeded in winning the World Championship in 1954 (he won the first two rounds in a Maserati 250F) and he was joined in the team the following year by Stirling Moss. Apart from an uncharacteristic spate of failures at the Monaco GP, Mercedes-Benz dominated the season and also won the World Sports Car Championship, with Moss winning the Mille Miglia, Tourist Trophy and Targa Florio.
Moss and Fangio were paired at Le Mans and held an easy lead when the team withdrew. One of its drivers, Pierre Bouillon, who raced under the nom-de-guerre, 'Pierre Levegh' had been involved in an accident not of his making. His car was launched into the crowd, killing the unfortunate 'Levegh' and more than 80 spectators.
The accident was set in motion by a misjudgement by Mike Hawthorn, and the carnage was so great because of the circuit's design, 'Levegh' and Mercedes-Benz were both blameless. The factory withdrew partly because it was horrified by the crash, partly because it felt that had it gone on to win, as it probably would have done, it would be a tarnished victory.
Work was proceeding on cars for 1956 when, on 22nd October, came the announcement that it was to withdraw from racing. Among the developments it had in the pipeline was four-wheel-drive.
After that, rumours of a return popped up every few years. Then, in the late 1980s, it returned to sports car racing through giving financial and technical support to Sauber. As part of its programme, it established a junior team to bring along talent of the order of Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger. In 1993 it supported Sauber's entry to Formula One and backed the team for two years, adding Keith Wiggins ill-fated Pacific GP team to its roster in 1994.
In 1995, Mercedes, which was keen to establish a relationship with a proven winning team, began a long and fruitful partnership with McLaren. In reality, the engines were built by Ilmor Engineering a British company established by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in Northamptonshire in 1984, however, DaimlerChrysler provided technical input and funding.
The partnership went from strength to strength with McLaren-Mercedes cars winning the Drivers' Championship in 1998 and 1999 and the Constructors' Championship in 1998.
In 2002, following the death of Ilmor co-founder Paul Morgan a year earlier in a flying accident, DaimlerChrysler increased its shareholding to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. Three years down the line DaimlerChrysler became the sole owner and promptly renamed the company Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines.
In addition to buying Ilmor, Daimler bought a 40 percent stake in McLaren however, while all appeared to be sweet and light on the outside by 2008 there was talk of all not being well between the two parties.
In 2009, for the first time since 1995, Mercedes supplied powerplants to outside teams with Force India and Brawn GP both keen to get their hands on what was reputed to be the best engine on the grid.
To the German manufacturer's frustration Brawn took both titles though to look at the un-branded cars the casual observers would be blissfully unaware of Mercedes involvement.
On November 16, two weeks after the conclusion of the 2009 season, and three months after McLaren and Mercedes celebrated their 250th Grand Prix as a partnership, Daimler and McLaren announced that they were bringing their business partnership to an end with the McLaren Group buying back the German manufacturer's 40 percent shareholding.
At the same time, Daimler AG announced that in partnership with Aabar Investments PJSC, a global investment company owned through a series of subsidiary companies by the Abu Dhabi Government, it would be taking over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team. The remaining 24.9 percent of Brawn GP would remain with its original stakeholders who include Ross Brawn and Nick Fry.
"The background to this decision are the new terms and conditions for Formula 1," said Mercedes. "The Resource Restrictions set by FOTA and FIA effectively limit expenditure for the design, construction and running of the racing cars. In addition, there will be a significantly higher income available for a Formula 1 team generated by the commercial rights of the racing series following the signing of the new Concorde Agreement."
"Mercedes-Benz resumes its marvellous motor racing history on the 75th anniversary of the Silver Arrows, the world's most unique racing cars," the manufacturer was keen to point out. "Mercedes wants to continue the tradition in the style of these flawless Silver Arrows, which put their stamp on each era by winning the majority of the races they competed in."
Shortly after announcing the purchase of Brawn GP, Mercedes announced that it had signed Nico Rosberg giving the Brackley outfit an even more Germanic look. However, the best was yet to come.
On December 23, as most of us wound down and prepared for the Christmas holiday, the team announced that it had persuaded seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher to come out of retirement, thereby reuniting the German with the company that brought him into F1 - having paid for his Jordan drive back in 1991 - and the man (Ross Brawn) with whom he won all seven titles.
It's been an odd journey, one that began in Germany well over one hundred years ago and includes some of the greatest names in motorsport. Whether Mercedes, Brawn and Schumacher can conjure up more of the Silver Arrows magic remains to be seen, especially in the wake of Brawn's own fairytale.
Statistics - before the 2010 Season
Drivers' Titles: 2
Constructors' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 2
Grand Prix: 12
Wins: 9
Points: 139.1
Poles: 8
Fastest Laps: 9
Team Structure
Team Principal: Ross Brawn
Chief Executive Officer: Nick Fry
Vice President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: Norbert Haug
Managing Director, Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines: Thomas Fuhr
Deputy Technical Director: Jorg Zander
Operations Director: Gary Savage
Head of Aerodynamics: Loic Bigois
Head of Race & Test Engineering: Steve Clark
Sporting Director: Ron Meadows
Senior Race Engineer to Jenson Button: Andrew Shovlin
Senior Race Engineer to Rubens Barrichello: Jock Clear
Chief Test Engineer: Simon Cole
Chief Mechanic: Matthew Deane
Test Team Manager: Andrew Alsworth
Marketing Director: David Butler
Head of Media Communications: Tracy Novak
Communications: Executive: Nicola Armstrong
Technical Specifications
MGP W01
Construction: Moulded carbon fibre and honeycomb composite structure
Suspension: Wishbone and pushrod activated torsion springs and rockers
Dampers: Sachs
Wheels: BBS forged magnesium
Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza
Brakes: Brembo calipers
Brake: discs/pads Carbon/Carbon
Steering Power: assisted rack and pinion
Steering wheel: Carbon fibre construction
Electronics: FIA standard ECU and FIA homologated electronic and electrical system
Gearbox: Seven speed unit with carbon composite maincase
Gear selection: Sequential, semi-automatic, hydraulic activation
Clutch: Carbon plate
Overall length: 4800mm
Overall height: 950mm
Overall width: 1800mm
Mercedes-Benz FO108X
Capacity: 2.4 litres
Cylinders: 8
Maximum rpm: 18,000 (maximum FIA regulation)
Bank angle: 90°
Piston bore: 98mm (maximum FIA regulation)
No of valves: 32
Weight: 95kg (minimum FIA regulation weight)
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