Mercedes wants a Grand Prix team of its own

cawimmer430 · **Mercedes wants a Grand Prix team of its own -** 07-19-2008, 02:26 PM

FORMULA ONE SPECIAL REPORT
Mercedes wants a Grand Prix team of its own
Formula One Special Report

Lewis Hamilton outside the McLaren Mercedes motor home in Hockenheim before the German Grand Prix. It is Mercedes' home race. (Alex Grimm/Reuters)

As the 10 Formula One teams prepare for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on Sunday, none of the five major car manufacturers in the sport can celebrate like Mercedes can: In terms of achievement, triumph, control over its destiny and cost/victory efficiency ratio, Mercedes, with its 40 percent stake in the McLaren Mercedes team, is the most consistent winner among them.

But while Mercedes has led the charge of the world's major car manufacturers into Formula One over the past decade and created the business model, it is the only one that does not own outright its own team - and it wants to.

At its home race on Sunday, Mercedes is hoping to continue its success of two weeks ago at the British Grand Prix - which Lewis Hamilton won - with another victory by Hamilton, who is leading the drivers' series, or a first victory by Heikki Kovalainen, who is sixth. But it is also acutely aware that another German manufacturer, BMW, lies second in the constructors' series and got its first victory at the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

Still, Norbert Haug, the head of motor sports activities at Mercedes, said he was not worried.

"That's fine," he said. "We have two premium brands and they have to have premium behavior toward each other as well. So I have a lot of respect for what they are doing and achieving and I think it's the same the other way around."

Indeed, Haug's counterpart at BMW, Mario Theissen, said it was precisely the influx of car manufacturers into the sport that made it attractive for BMW to be there. And since BMW won its first race as a full team owner - BMW had previously supplied engines to the Williams team - he said the winning was all the sweeter.

"It is different if you take responsibility for the entire package," Theissen said. "It really is the team effort to win a race and it gives special pride to all the team members."

But Michael Schmidt, a journalist at Auto Motor und Sport, a German car magazine, said the battle between the two German manufacturers was a focal point for German fans. Since BMW is a full team owner, he said, the public clearly wonders why Mercedes cannot also own a team outright.

Gnawing at both of these carmakers, however, is the achievement of a third company. In 2005, Renault became the first car manufacturer to win the constructors' title, which it won again in 2006. Its driver Fernando Alonso won the drivers' title in both years.

With McLaren, Mercedes won the drivers' and constructors' titles in 1998 and the drivers' title in 1999, but the company thirsts for victory entirely under its own name, although Haug tempers the situation.

"The question is how successful you are," he said. "It's not a question of what percentage you own. It's a question of how many points you have on your account at the end of the year. And so far we have more points for less money - for a car manufacturer."

Since returning to the sport in 1993 - having withdrawn from racing in 1955 - Mercedes has been joined by the manufacturers Renault, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Peugeot and Ford. Peugeot and Ford stayed only a few years, without success and, apart from Peugeot, all the automakers bought their own teams. A notable exception among the manufacturer teams is Ferrari, which generally sells only luxury sports cars.

For many in Germany, however, the McLaren Mercedes team is already the Mercedes team.

"In Germany, for the daily newspapers, the name McLaren doesn't mean anything," Schmidt said.

"They even had a story two or three years ago asking why they don't play the German national anthem when a Mercedes driver wins," he added, referring to the podium tradition of playing the anthem of the winning team's national location.

But to buy out McLaren will not be easy. The team is the second-oldest and second-most-successful in Formula One history, behind Ferrari, which has raced in the series since 1950.

McLaren has been racing in Formula One since 1966 and has won eight constructors' titles and 11 drivers' titles. Ron Dennis, the team principal and part owner, sees his role as keeper of the heritage.

But Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren Racing chief executive, confirmed that talks were ongoing and that he could not rule out an eventual takeover by Mercedes.

"It's an interesting issue and a dilemma that faces the shareholders of this business - and to some extent the management," he said. "But I would be deeply disturbed if Mercedes had no real interest in acquiring us. I think it's a tangible demonstration of their commitment to this."

"They have a lot of investments already sunk in their Formula One endeavors," he added, "and the fact that they would like to acquire control is a healthy ambition."

Yet Mercedes, too, has one of the strongest heritages in world motor sport. This month, it celebrated the centennial of its first Grand Prix victory, on July 7, 1908, at the French Grand Prix in Dieppe.

In the 1930s, the company dominated Grand Prix racing. Its Silver Arrows legend was born in 1934, when the rules required cars to weigh no more than 750 kilograms, or 1,653 pounds. To achieve that weight, the team stripped off the car's paint. Because of the resulting dull silver of the aluminum chassis, the cars were called Silver Arrows.

After the war, the company returned to Grand Prix racing, in 1954 and 1955, winning the drivers' title with Juan Manuel Fangio, and the cars again took on the name of Silver Arrows. But Mercedes withdrew from motor sport at the end of 1955 after a Mercedes was involved in an accident at the Le Mans 24-Hour race in which more than 80 spectators were killed.

It rejoined Formula One in 1993, supplying engines to the Sauber team of Switzerland, but then left Sauber for McLaren in 1995. The Silver Arrows tradition began again in 1997 when the cars were painted silver.

Of the 104 Mercedes victories in Grand Prix racing since 1908, 54 have come with McLaren Mercedes.

But while Mercedes pressures McLaren to sell, another of its wishes - and also the hope of the German public - is to have a German driver in the German car. It tried to hire Nico Rosberg, a young German-born driver, away from the Williams team last winter.

"It's the driver first for the public," Haug said. "But I wouldn't underestimate the cars, and the brands with their enormous heritage."

"Fangio won five world championships, with different cars," he added. "But I think he still is very much connected and identified with Mercedes-Benz, with the Silver Arrows."

BMW has the German driver Nick Heidfeld, but after eight and a half seasons in the sport, he has not won a race. There are five German drivers in total - more than ever before in Formula One - but none of them has won a race.

"Of course the hope is there from the Germans to have a new driver like that coming through the ranks," Rosberg said. "But it's not only a bit of a burden; it's a great chance - to fill the gap. And each and every one of us is pushing very hard to try and jump in there, but it's difficult at the moment."

A key to Mercedes's current longevity in the sport is its effort to attract younger customers to its road cars. "Mercedes achieved a real turnaround in their image; it's now a young, fresh image," Schmidt said.

The company's involvement with McLaren also goes beyond the racing. The two make a luxury road sports car together, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, which is built at the McLaren factory in Woking, England, and is one of the best-selling luxury cars in the world. More than 2,500 have been built in three different versions; the car costs more than €500,000, or $794,000.

"We are out-and-out racers, which is very important for us," Haug said. "It's the racing that is the most important thing, it's Formula One. But if you have a car like that, it is helping the image as well. It creates a lot of enthusiasm with the customers, so that's positive."

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