Team-BHP > Motor-Sports > Int'l Motorsport


Reply
  Search this Thread
9,458 views
Old 16th November 2009, 18:23   #16
BHPian
 
KRf1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: NCR / BLR
Posts: 339
Thanked: 3 Times

So Brawn GP is now Mercedes GrandPrix ! 75.1% stake . What a move by Daimler .
Now Ron Dennis gets closer to his dream to make Mclaren as iconic as Ferrari .Long road ahead though.
Are we going to have an all German lineup at Brawn and an all English lineup at Mclaren now ?
Come on Mclaren grab Kimi before he has another mood swing !
KRf1 is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 18:26   #17
BHPian
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bombay
Posts: 956
Thanked: 95 Times
The Mercedes Anschluss*

My perspective is slightly different and perhaps discursive.

1. There have been reports that Mercedes Benz faces a steady but terminal decline in its sales- BMW and Audi are gaining market share and both are slated to overtake Mercedes in sales of their cars in the next decade

2. Mercedes want to desperately shore up its sagging image as a technology trend setter from a fun to drive perspective which has been a BMW characteristic for some time; Audi is also trying to play in this space

3. McLaren's new supercar - the MP4-12C- has a McLaren engine and not a Mercedes engine; hence McLaren is well on way to becoming a sports/GT/supercar manufacturer on its own right

4. Brawn's strong showing with the Mercedes engine is an opportunity for Mercedes to impose its presence in the high tech, high profile world of F1 by moving in in Brawn. Brawn GP = Mercedes GP means Mercedes engines, transmissions, brakes, the works with Mercedes financial muscle

5. McLaren might eventually break loose from Mercedes in F1 and they will organise themselves as a GP team completely independent of Mercedes - this might happen by 2011

6. With BMW out of F1 and Audi not there, the Mercedes Anschluss of Brawn is a good opportunity for Mercedes to move in, in F1

7. Mercedes GP complicates matters for McLaren, for they have to finalise their parting of ways with Mercedes quickly, to make it as smooth and amicable as possible. It also creates a more powerful competitor to McLaren in F1.

I would stick my neck out and include Mercedes GP as a strong contender in F1 2020, along with McLaren, Red Bull and Ferarri ( if they can produce a competitive car for 2010).

I will factor this development in the battle of the three giants in the hyperengineered luxury mass market sedan market: Mercedes, BMW, and Audi.

Regards
issigonis is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 18:29   #18
Senior - BHPian
 
hanmust's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Calicut
Posts: 2,481
Thanked: 262 Times
2010 in Formula 1: Mercedes Grand Prix

Mercedes-Benz will enter the Formula 1 World Championship with its own team, beginning with the 2010 season, and Daimler AG and McLaren Group will change their form of cooperation with effect as of 13 November 2009. This was announced by Daimler AG today.

Daimler AG together with Aabar Investments PJSC will take over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team, with Daimler taking 45.1 per cent and Aabar 30 per cent. The rest of the 24.9 per cent will remain with the current stakeholders. With 9.1 per cent, Aabar is the biggest single shareholder of Daimler AG. This transaction is subject to the approval of the EU and the Swiss cartel authorities.

The background to this decision are the new terms and conditions for Formula 1. 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.

The partnership between McLaren Mercedes has been in place since 1995 and ended its 15th joint Formula 1 season in 2009. The change to the form of cooperation is taking place by mutual agreement. Mercedes-Benz and McLaren will continue to co-operate with each other and the supply of engines could continue until 2015.

The McLaren Group have set themselves new targets, especially in the automotive sector, and Daimler understands and respects these new strategic objectives.For this reason, it has been agreed that the buy-back by the McLaren Group of the 40 per cent McLaren share owned by Daimler AG will be completed by 2011.

By taking this decision, Mercedes-Benz resumes its marvellous motor racing history on the 75th anniversary of the Silver Arrows, the world’s most unique racing cars. 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.

“Mercedes-Benz is the most valued and best-known premium automotive brand in the world. This brand looks for competition of the utmost quality in all relevant fields in order to continually improve its performance in the face of such new challenges”, explains Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“Due to the new Formula 1 environment, we will face the competition in future on the most important motor sports stage with our own Silver Arrow works team.

“Our new Silver Arrow Formula 1 team is a great sporting and technical challenge and we will tackle this with sporting spirit and full of enthusiasm.”

Mercedes-Benz will restructure their Formula 1 programme and work hard to achieve further savings, going beyond the already completed steps for significant cost reductions and improved efficiency.

Since 1995, the beginning of the partnership, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz have competed in 256 Grand Prix events and have achieved 60 victories. In 1998, 1999 and 2008, the British-German team won the drivers’ World Championships, as well as the World Constructors’ Championship in 1998. The McLaren Mercedes team became runner-up in the World Championships ten times, with five times in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings respectively.

After winning the drivers’ title with Lewis Hamilton last year, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes finished third in the World Constructors’ Championships this year. The 2008 World Champion won two races with his current car, the MP4-24, achieving a first historic victory with the brake energy-recovery system, KERS Hybrid. No other driver scored more points in the last eight races from the season’s total of 17 races than Lewis Hamilton.

“I want to thank McLaren for a successful collaboration over the last decade and a half”, says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. “For the benefit of both Mercedes and McLaren, we will continue our partnership cooperation in future. We will be rivals on-track but, off-track, we will cooperate with McLaren and the other teams in order to create the best possible product for spectators worldwide.”

“We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren; in that time, we won four world-championship titles and finished ten times as runner-up in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings,” states Norbert Haug, Vice-President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. “Since the first victory in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, the modern Silver Arrows have achieved a total of 60 victories in 223 races to ensure that our brand symbol, the star, stands for the greatest successes in Formula 1. We thank our partner and will continue to work with McLaren based on an excellent partnership.”

Mercedes Grand Prix, the management team of the former Brawn GP team, will continue to work under the leadership of Ross Brawn, who will continue in his well-known role. The Formula 1 team, as well as the engine team of Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, will be co-ordinated by Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, headed by their Vice-President, Norbert Haug.

"Brawn GP has been through an incredible journey over the last 12 months. From fighting for our survival to forging a strong relationship with Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, winning both the Constructors' and Drivers' World Championships, and now accepting Daimler and Aabar's offer to buy our team, which will secure its future”, Team Principal Ross Brawn looks back on a difficult beginning of the year which eventually turned into an extremely successful season.

"Both I and my fellow Directors at Brawn GP are incredibly proud of our staff, drivers and everyone associated with our team and thank them for their commitment, outstanding teamwork and their focus on achieving results in sometimes difficult circumstances. The senior management group will remain in place to lead our team and on behalf of everyone at Brawn GP, we are honoured to be representing such a prestigious brand as Mercedes-Benz in Formula One next year and will be working together to do our best to reward their faith in our team."

The new Silver Arrow team, Mercedes Grand Prix, will compete in Formula 1 as a works team in its own right. Synergies between the 100 per cent Daimler-owned subsidiary Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines in Brixworth, UK, and the Mercedes Grand Prix team based about 28 miles from there in Brackley in the UK, will create even greater efficiency.

It is our target to develop a model for our Formula 1 activities which will initially be run with significantly reduced budgets by Mercedes-Benz and which, in the foreseeable future, will be self-financing”, comments Norbert Haug. “Furthermore, we naturally want to inspire our faithful spectators and TV viewers worldwide and maximize media coverage for our brand. With Formula 1, Mercedes-Benz can continue to clearly demonstrate its willingness to compete and win on the most important motor sports competition stage in the world.”

Khadem Al Qubaisi, Chairman, Aabar Investment PJSC comments: "Aabar is delighted to join forces with Daimler AG and its world leading brand Mercedes-Benz in order to create a new Formula One Team which follows in the footsteps of the longstanding and successful tradition of the famous ‘Silver Arrows’.

“Ever since Aabar became the largest shareholder in Daimler AG, the cooperation between our two organisations has been exemplary, and we have already co-invested in Tesla. Aabar is confident that further successes will follow in this arena.

“Bearing in mind the recent outstanding success of the Abu Dhabi GP, which brought Formula One to the United Arab Emirates for the first time, it is especially exciting to realise that next year, our own cars will be in the field, with the genius of Ross Brawn, who is still deeply involved with the team, now backed by the unrivalled excellence of Mercedes-Benz across the entire spectrum of automotive technology. It is a fantastic prospect, which makes me both pleased and proud for my country.”

Source: Daimler AG
Attached Thumbnails
Mercedes to buy Brawn and rename it EDIT: Now called Mercedes Benz Grand Prix-744802_1354309_4992_3328_091116_gross-1.jpg  


Last edited by hanmust : 16th November 2009 at 18:34.
hanmust is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 18:51   #19
BHPian
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Michigan,USA
Posts: 487
Thanked: 173 Times

Ross Brawn --- Take a bow

What a man - taking over a team as a last gap effort,making it to 2009 lineup just in time and converting them to a Championship winning team and thereby bringing in the moolah.

The man has got his financial rewards too with this deal.
jraj is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 18:56   #20
BHPian
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 355
Thanked: 183 Times

The Merc-Brawn deal also puts out lot of interesting questions on Kimi & Buttons future :
1. Will Merc-Brawn field an all-German line-up next season with Nico Rosberg partnered by Nick Heidfeld & let Button (With Car No 1 next year) move out to McLaren ?
2. Will McLaren signup Button & pay him his demanded 8M Pounds (just for the No 1 Car) when the rumors are that it has offered Kimi only 5M pounds? (IMO Kimi can anyday smoke out Button given they both drive identical cars)
3. Norbert Haug has openly appreciated Kimi's talents before the Alonso-Ferrari announcement (& before the Merc-Brawn deal). Does it mean Kimi is the second driver at Brawn?
4. Will Button try & move to McLaren (just for the money) & risk his future as Lewis is and will remain the No 1 driver at Mclaren (between Lewis & Button). Lewis will smoke his reputation
5. Will Kimi or Button be without a drive in 2010?
malgudi is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 19:28   #21
BHPian
 
KRf1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: NCR / BLR
Posts: 339
Thanked: 3 Times

A pictorial evolution of the F1 team that is now Mercedes F1 :

Tyrell -> British American Racing -> Honda F1 -> Brawn GP -> Mercedes F1 Team .

Edit :
Picture 1 BAR (1999 - 2004)
Picture 2 BRAWN GP (2009)
Picture 3 Mercedes F1 (2010- )
Picture 4 Tyrell (1968-1998)
Picture 5 Honda F1 (2005-2008)

Copyright respective owners .
Attached Thumbnails
Mercedes to buy Brawn and rename it EDIT: Now called Mercedes Benz Grand Prix-tyrellp34.jpg  

Mercedes to buy Brawn and rename it EDIT: Now called Mercedes Benz Grand Prix-wallpapers_car_f1_bar-f1-2001-1024x768.jpg  

Mercedes to buy Brawn and rename it EDIT: Now called Mercedes Benz Grand Prix-hondaf1ra1083quarter.jpg  

Mercedes to buy Brawn and rename it EDIT: Now called Mercedes Benz Grand Prix-brawngp.jpg  

Mercedes to buy Brawn and rename it EDIT: Now called Mercedes Benz Grand Prix-mercf1.jpg  


Last edited by KRf1 : 16th November 2009 at 19:35.
KRf1 is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 19:59   #22
Senior - BHPian
 
McLaren Rulez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Mysore
Posts: 3,379
Thanked: 4,994 Times

Just curious, but why 75.1%? What's the 0.1 got to do with anything?
McLaren Rulez is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 20:07   #23
Senior - BHPian
 
SilentEngine's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: KA19,KA04
Posts: 1,167
Thanked: 735 Times

Mercedes boss and Norbert Haug say that having all-German team is not a must. So just because they are talking to Heidfeld, doesn't mean they aren't talking to non-German drivers. Who knows, they may be even talking to Kimi. So Heidfeld isn't their first choice for the second seat.

So we have Kimi/Button/Heidfeld for the 1 McLaren and 1 Mercedes seat. One of them is going to miss out. It's a case of who blinks first.
SilentEngine is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 20:10   #24
Senior - BHPian
 
McLaren Rulez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Mysore
Posts: 3,379
Thanked: 4,994 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by SilentEngine View Post
..for the 1 McLaren and 1 Mercedes seat..
Gosh, it sounds so odd when you put it that way.
McLaren Rulez is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 20:18   #25
Senior - BHPian
 
anachronix's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Madras
Posts: 3,286
Thanked: 1,336 Times

So its official!

Expect the big news... possibly the 21st on who did blink first
anachronix is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 20:52   #26
~~h
BHPian
 
~~h's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Singapore
Posts: 145
Thanked: 17 Times

I would personally don't like to see Button sharing stable with Lewis Hamilton.... barring that it's a great news for F1.

The past 3-4 news we heard were of people backing off, now this one will put some much needed attention to the sport.
~~h is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 21:54   #27
BHPian
 
gomzi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 798
Thanked: 236 Times

Wow!

Reading through the official statement, I just realised that its the return of Mercedes Silver Arrows team in half a century.

They had withdrawn from all motorsport after the tragedy in 1955.

Last edited by gomzi : 16th November 2009 at 21:58. Reason: added year of tragedy
gomzi is offline  
Old 16th November 2009, 23:25   #28
BHPian
 
KRf1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: NCR / BLR
Posts: 339
Thanked: 3 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez View Post
Just curious, but why 75.1%? What's the 0.1 got to do with anything?
Interesting question .
Maybe the shares between Ross Brawn , Nick Fry and others are such that 75.1 % shares were up for sale .
Here is a quote from Autosport.com about the breakdown of shares :
Quote:
"This is possible by the agreed acquisition of 75.1 per cent of Brawn GP, 45.1 per cent from Daimler and 30 per cent from our partner Aabar Investments. The rest will be with the current share - Ross Brawn, Nick Fry and other members. The interests of Daimler are aligned therefore it will be a true Mercedes-Benz team.
KRf1 is offline  
Old 17th November 2009, 09:01   #29
MCR
BHPian
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: BLR/MYS
Posts: 882
Thanked: 636 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by SilentEngine View Post
Mercedes boss and Norbert Haug say that having all-German team is not a must. So just because they are talking to Heidfeld, doesn't mean they aren't talking to non-German drivers. Who knows, they may be even talking to Kimi. So Heidfeld isn't their first choice for the second seat.

So we have Kimi/Button/Heidfeld for the 1 McLaren and 1 Mercedes seat. One of them is going to miss out. It's a case of who blinks first.
But don't we have 2 seats at Mercedes(Brawn)GP? I think they are yet to confirm their 2 drivers.
MCR is offline  
Old 17th November 2009, 10:31   #30
Senior - BHPian
 
McLaren Rulez's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Mysore
Posts: 3,379
Thanked: 4,994 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by MCR View Post
But don't we have 2 seats at Mercedes(Brawn)GP? I think they are yet to confirm their 2 drivers.
Its not official but nearly everyone knows that Rosberg will get one of the seats there.

EDIT: The Guardian newspaper is saying that Button has officially signed a three year deal with McLaren. So that leaves Heidfeld and Raikkonen for the last seat at Mercedes GP.

Jenson Button agrees to join McLaren on three-year, £6m-a-year deal | Sport | guardian.co.uk

Last edited by McLaren Rulez : 17th November 2009 at 10:34.
McLaren Rulez is offline  
Reply

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks