Mercedes Grand Prix

Yet more big changes among the F1 teams for 2010! Not only do we get get a raft of new teams, the departure of BMW (who may yet come back in a new form) and Toyota, now we also have Mercedes completely restructuring their involvement after a long unbroken run with McLaren.


McLaren
Mercedes presently own 40% of the McLaren F1 team (not the group as a whole though). The problem Mercedes faced is that while they are the largest single shareholder, the others hold an agreement by which they vote as a single block, thus having the power to veto Mercedes. There is also the new supercar which is the first McLaren-built road car in years not to feature a Mercedes engine.

Plan: The 40% shareholding will be reduced gradually over the next 18 months or so and for the 2010 season (and beyond??) the team will still be called Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. The engine supply agreement remains and, for now, so does the colour scheme.


BrawnGP
After Honda departed F1 the team has had to cut back somewhat in personnel, and it still seemed to suffer the same problem as it always had under every incarnation, that of not being able to attract long-term sponsors. With benefactors like BAT and Honda it was never necessary only desired, indeed Honda effectively bankrolled the 2009 season. It was anyone's guess what would happen in 2010 and beyond. Yet amazingly the came from nowhere to dominate the first half of the season, and while it went south after that they managed to battle on to secure both championships.

Plan: Mercedes have bought 75.1% of the team in an agreement with a Middle Eastern investment company. The team will henceforth be known as Mercedes GP and the cars branded as 'Silver Arrows', harking back to the famous cars of the 1930s and 1950s. Ross Brawn remains in charge but will liaise with Norbert Haug.


Drivers:
Rubens Barrichello left Brawn last month and had already signed for Williams to replace Nico Rosberg, who was looking to leave that team. Nico had therefore been linked with the vacant Brawn seat in a straight swap and now Mercedes have a greater involvement the deal appears as good as done.

The big question is over the future of Jenson Button. There are strong reports placing him at McLaren with a pay rise, doing nothing to quell his reputation as a money-chaser. At least this time he's earned it. I am not sure what placing himself in what is Lewis Hamilton's personal team is going to acheive for Button other than damaging his career, he must be confident in his ablility to beat him. It will be interesting to see him try!
At this stage it could still be an elaborate bluff and Kimi Raikkonen could still get that seat, though you have to say that possibility is shrinking daily. In fact just this evening Kimi's manager has stated any chance with McLaren has now disappeared.

That leaves a space at MercGP. Will Kimi end up there? Are the Heidfeld rumours a ploy by the Kimi or Jenson to get more money (either take us for mega $$ or end up with Nick), and is that how he gets himself hired? What is the fate of Heikki Kovalainen?

Lots of questions still need answering. One thing's for sure, this is a much bigger deal for the ex-Brawn team than the Virgin deal suggested a while back and perhaps that's why Virgin are now hooking up with Manor.

One final point I saw mentioned:
Among entrants this makes BrawnGP the most successful team in history, in terms of strike rate.
Years entered: 1
Drivers titles: 1
Constructors titles: 1
Maximum score.

Launch Season: McLaren MP4-24

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-24
The 2009 McLaren was unveiled at the Woking factory earlier today, along with the announcement that Ron Dennis was moving out of his F1 role to concentrate on McLaren's ever growing portfolio in other areas.

The McLaren group of companies is active in electronics, engineering and is currently designing and building it's own road car, as well as many other things which I'm not quite sure about...

Martin Whitmarsh, Ron's long-time Lieutenant, will take over the day-to-day running of the race team as well as being the Top Dog at the racetrack. Dennis will remain as Chief Exec and will still oversee the general running of the F1 operation.
This has been coming for a while and was maybe due a 12-18 months ago, but the whole Stepneygate affair seemed to galvanise Ron into staying longer than maybe he'd originally planned. Still, it wasn't expected that he'd announce it at the '09 car launch.

The car itself looks absolutely gorgeous, save for the stupid-ass rear wing. On the other hand, now that we're seeing true designs the front wings are growing on me, and they are sure to become further refined before we reach Melbourne. The rear wings definitely do need more work. The MP4-24 overall though looks absolutely fantastic in this colour-scheme without all of the aerodynamic and cooling devices on the main bodywork. This is the third car which looks better than the '08 cars, discounting the main wings, so I'm very quickly becoming a fan of this particular new regulation!

By the way, is anyone else absolutely loving the return of slick tyres? They look brilliant on these cars. Racing cars should always run on slick tyres except when it is raining.

Here's a pic from McLaren.com:



This chassis is actually the second '24 constructed, the first car is already at the Algarve circuit in Portimao for a shakedown on Saturday, where McLaren have booked an exclusive test day. Other teams will join McLaren at the same venue next week. Check the news sites for on-track photos!


Previous launches (now with photos):
Toyota
Ferrari

I will return on Sunday. I'm thinking of doing something on British coverage of motorsport now that some announcements are coming through, although I may hold it for a while. In the meantime it looks like A1GP is falling to pieces so that could be an interesting talking point. The Furious Wedge is keeping tabs on things and I tend to agree with his assessments when it comes to A1GP.
(I'm developing a habit of ending my blog posts on a tangent, maybe I should reign that in a bit..)

Move along..

..nothing to see here.

I was going to write about the outcome of the McLaren/Hamilton penalty appeal but really, who expected any differently? They lost. Big deal. Who cares? We all expected them to lose. The only people who didn't were either McLaren employees or British tabloid 'journalists'.

And you know what? I agree with the penalty. Not the harshness of it, but the concept that he had a penalty. He gained an advantage by leaving the track and he didn't relinquish the advantage in full before going for the pass - I agree.

My problem here is that Kimi did the same later on - if he'd finished the race, would he have been served with a penalty? I don't think he would. The inconsistency and apparent Ferrari-bias - or at least anti-McLaren bias - of the officials just won't seem to go away. They need at least one full time steward, preferably all three full-time, and for at least one to have competed in Grands Prix before.


Oh. It turns out I DID write about the outcome of the McLaren/Hamilton penalty appeal.

The post is fuelled by red wine, Lemon Jelly, and a relaxed couple of days off work.
(you really need to listen to "The Curse of Ka'Zar" in that state of mind)

McLaren look forward to night race

On the F1NGers newsgroup somebody posted this link to a video preview from McLaren, a chat with Martin Whitmarsh ahead of F1's first night race which will be held in Singapore in ten days' time.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOl_p3gyrD0

Just the usual boring Martin waffling along... or is it?


EDIT - I've just discovered the same thing is at www.mclaren.com