18-Mar-10: McLaren Buy Back Majority of Mercedes Shares

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Today is the 18th March 2010 and this is F1 Minute.

Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that McLaren have bought back the majority of the 40% stake held by Mercedes in the team, leaving them with much less. During an event today to launch the new McLaren supercar, Whitmarsh said: “I think it is about 11% that is still owned by Mercedes, but it’s not an important or significant number.” Apparently, the buy-back was agreed upon in November, and will be complete in 2011 – and it makes sense as the two are now full competitors out on track.

Elsewhere, Bridgestone have said they do not intend to reverse their decision to leave the sport, despite rumours that the FIA were keen for them to stay on. Hiroshi Yasukawa, director of motorsport, confirmed that the FIA will have to open a tender process, and the company may decide to sell the tyre technology to whoever is stepping in, but no matter what, there will be no Bridgestone tyres in 2011.

That’s all for today, please join me again tomorrow for another F1 Minute.

Way Back When…

Michael Schumacher drives the Bahrain International Circuit back in 2006, the last time the track held the opening round of the Formula One World Championship. It also marks the last time Schumacher raced an F1 car in the desert, back when grooved tyres were all the rage and cigarette advertising had yet to be banned.

Michael returns to the track this year after a three year absence, this time at the wheel of his Mercedes MGP W01.

05-Mar-10: Ian Phillips Leaves Force India F1

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Welcome to F1 Minute for the 5th March 2010.

Force India have confirmed that Ian Phillips, their director of business affairs, will be leaving the team. Phillips has been with them for 19 years, since they were Jordan but is now being let go. The consensus of opinion appears to be that he was not popular after letting slip Fisichella’s move to Ferrari last year before it actually happened, and that people tend to go to Phillips for the gossip. A Force India statement simply read: “The team would like to wish Ian every success in his future endeavours.”

Elsewhere, McLaren have invited the FIA to come to the factory and take a look at their rear wing, after Red Bull queried the design. Charlie Whiting was due to inspect the part today, but didn’t make it to the factory.

Very quickly to finish, Mercedes won the race to get their preview quotes out first, and Schumacher says: “Finally the season will start! I feel like a child looking forward to Christmas.”

That’s all for now, please join me on Monday for another F1 Minute.

10-Feb-10: Rosberg Leads a Wet First Day in Jerez

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Welcome to F1 Minute for the 10th February 2010.

The second test of 2010 got underway today, although there wasn’t an enormous amount of action to keep track of. The first hour was clear of rain, with Rosberg posting the fastest time for Mercedes, just ahead of Buemi in the Toro Rosso. Then the weather turned, and no one could beat Nico’s time. Also of note, though, Hulkenberg was third, completing the most laps – 118. Glock only ran 5 laps for Virgin Racing, which was a suspiciously low amount for the car’s first outing.

Elsewhere, you may have heard rumours recently, talking about the fact that teams would be given a three race allowance to miss events, mostly aimed at the new teams in case they aren’t ready for the season. However, the FIA have moved to clear this up, issuing a statement saying: “From a sporting and regulatory point of view, each team that has registered for the championship is obliged to take part in every event of the season.”

That’s all for today, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.

Nico Continues Test Programme in Valencia

Nico Rosberg was back at the wheel of the MGP W01 car today for his first full day of testing for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team. Another fine and dry day in Valencia provided ideal winter testing conditions and enabled the team to successfully work through today’s programme.

After completing the initial set-up work with the MGP W01 yesterday morning, Nico had a productive day focusing on long runs which saw him cover a race distance mileage over the course of the day. Although still not entirely comfortable with his position in the car, Nico completed 119 laps today, setting a fastest lap time of 01:12.899.

Michael Schumacher will take over from Nico tomorrow for the third and final day of this week’s test.

Nico Rosberg: “I’m very pleased with our first full day of testing and we were really able to get into the programme and achieve some good work today. We successfully completed a race distance on the car’s second day of running and I’m quite happy with how the car felt on the longer runs with heavy fuel. It felt like the same car, just a little bit slower, but the balance was good. We’ve still got some work to do on my position in the car as I dropped down by 1.5cm during the day which explains why the visibility got a little difficult towards the end but that’s something we can fix before the next test. Overall it’s been a positive start to our pre-season testing and I’m enjoying working with the team and feeling very comfortable here.”

ADAC AutomarxX Recognises Mercedes as Most Successful Motorsport Brand

Mercedes-Benz has been recognised as the most successful name in motor racing by the AutoMarxX car brand index. The ‘PKW Monitor’ survey is conducted by the German motoring organisation ADAC for publication in its Motorwelt magazine, with around 4000 members of the public being quizzed.

The latest poll in December 2009 put Mercedes-Benz ahead when the respondents were asked “Which manufacturer is the most successful in motor racing?” ensuring that the brand defended its top spot position from the 2006 to 2008 surveys.

The ADAC introduced its AutoMarxX carmaker index in 2001 with the purpose of analysing the reputation and market strength of 33 manufacturers retailing in Germany. The AutoMarxX brand comparison is compiled from various individual criteria such as brand image, market strength, customer satisfaction and product quality whilst also taking environmental and safety issues into account. The ADAC AutoMarxX has now been published 21 times, and in eleven of these, Mercedes-Benx came out ahead of the rest in the overall classification.

Mercedes GP Petronas MGP W01 Car Makes Debut in Valencia

Formula One’s first day of pre-season testing began in Valencia this morning to kick off 15 days of track action ahead of the first race of the 2010 season in Bahrain on 14 March. For MERCEDES GP PETRONAS, the day began with a photocall in the morning sunshine at 8:50am with Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn showing off the new MGP W01 before the car was rolled back into the garage to prepare for the start of the test programme.

Nico was the first to drive the new Silver Arrow on track with the main focus of his programme to work through the initial set-up of the car and ensure that he was comfortable with his seat and position. Nico drove out of the garage for his first installation run at 10:34 and completed five runs over 39 laps before he finished for the day at 13:40, setting the fourth fastest time – a 01:13.543.

Michael took over the MGP W01 for the remainder of the day for his first run in a current Formula One car since April 2008. Getting out on track just after 15:30, Michael was comfortably on the pace after his first run and spent the remaining track time familiarising himself with the new car. Michael completed 40 laps over three runs, with a fastest lap of 01:12.947 putting him in third place on the timesheets.

Nico will continue the team’s programme tomorrow with Michael taking over for the final day.

Nico Rosberg: “It was a good first day of testing for us and my initial impressions of the new car are very positive. It felt great to be in the car for the first time and to get our pre-season testing programme underway. Generally everything felt good although I was sitting too low in the car and couldn’t see the track very well which we will improve for tomorrow. It’s too early to get an initial impression of the competitiveness but it was very special to drive the new Silver Arrow out of the garage. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when we have a full day of testing to make further progress.”

Michael Schumacher: “It was a perfect rollout for the new car today. I felt totally comfortable and really had a feeling that everything was very natural. It felt just like at the very beginning of my career in 1991 when on the first lap, I thought ‘wow that was really fast’ and then on the second lap, I was just extremely excited. I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there. We did a good job today, just making a few control checks, and the most important thing was that the car ran reliably. With Nico and I covering 79 laps between us, it was a superb job by the team.”

Ross Brawn: “We have had a very useful first day of testing here in Valencia. Our priority was to ensure that the new car was functioning properly and allow both drivers to use their short window of track time to get acclimatised to the car and its operations. Today’s work has provided a good basis for the next couple of days and it was rewarding to see that the car ran reliably. I would like to say thank you to everyone at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth for all their hard work in preparing the car to test here this week. And finally, it’s been a very special day to work with Nico for the first time, to work with Michael once again and to complete our first active day as the Mercedes-Benz works team.”

Celebrity Guests Attend Mercedes GP Petronas Team Presentation

600 specially invited guests were in Stuttgart on Monday to celebrate the official launch of the new MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One team ahead of the 2010 season.

The presentation was attended by Michael Schumacher’s wife Corinna, AMG founder and ITR chairman Hans Werner Aufrecht, world boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, former McLaren Mercedes Formula One driver David Coulthard, former Formula One driver and DTM star Ralf Schumacher, record DTM championship winner Bernd Schneider, plus Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers Gary Paffett, Paul Di Resta, Bruno Spengler, Jamie Green, Maro Engel and Mathias Lauda.

In addition to 200 representatives of the media, 200 Mercedes-Benz employees were also invited to attend the launch. They had been specially selected as a reward for outstanding service to the company or had been fortunate enough to secure one of the hundred tickets for the occasion that had been advertised on the Mercedes intranet – all of which had been snapped up within 21 minutes of going online.

The presentation of the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team took place in a fitting location – the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart where examples of the legendary Silver Arrow from all epochs are on display. The Mercedes-Benz Museum was re-opened in May 2006 on the Mercedes-Benz World site. The nine-storey building comprises around 17,000 square metres of exhibition space.

Mercedes Apprentices in the Limelight at Team Presentation

On Monday 25 January, the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart saw the opening of a new chapter in the illustrious history of the Silver Arrows, as the livery of the new Silver Arrow was presented against the background of models from the past.

At 11.14am, four apprentices from the Mercedes-Benz factories in Sindelfingen and Untertürkheim wheeled out a Formula One car from the 2009 season in the new Silver Arrow livery of the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team.

“Incredible. That was an experience I’ll never forget,” said Simon Küffner (22) from Haigerloch. “It was unbelievably exciting to be in one room or on stage with all the big names and to get a glimpse behind the scenes. I was really impressed by all the hard work that went into making the event go so smoothly.”

The presentation was also a very special occasion for 17-year-old Sarah Wurster from Aidlingen. “Today’s presentation made a big visual impression that will stay with me for a long time,” she said. “It’s not often that an apprentice can experience such an event at first hand, and it’s marvellous that my training at Mercedes-Benz has given me this opportunity.”

Claudia Lengerer (23) from Kirchheim was fascinated by the whole occasion. “I’m so proud to have seen all the stars and I was really pleased by how charming everyone was to us. Thank you to Mercedes-Benz for allowing me to be part of this occasion. I’ll never forget the day.”

“It was so interesting to get this close-up view of the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team,” said Darko Turcan (19) from Stuttgart, the fourth member of the group. “I was also delighted by the chance to see what goes on behind the scenes and feel privileged to have played an active part in that days event.”

The four apprentices were selected by their supervisors as a reward for outstanding performance during their training period.

Silver Side Up

Mercedes GP unveiled their new livery in Stuttgart today, at a team launch. The 2010 car – the MGP W01 – will be revealed on the 1st February in Valencia. Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were both present for the launch, and McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh also showed his face.

Credit: Mercedes GP Petronas

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