Brawn is now Mercedes Grand Prix

[Chris Elyea]

Mercedes buys 75.1% of Brawn

Forget what I said about all the manufacturers pulling out!

Mercedes to supply McLaren with engines for another 6 years under newly extended deal, but will sell its 40% stake in McLaren back to the team over the next 2 years.

[Vagabond142]

Wow.... talk about not seeing THAT one coming o_o

So... McLaren is now a solo team, Mercedes is a solo team. This could get pretty bloody fun And if Button does go to McLaren, I'm gonna have a hard time choosing which team to cheer (I'm still supporting Button overall, but now i gotta decide between McLaren and Mercedes)

[Tomaz]

Interesting!

Hamilton FTW!!!

Does this mean Hamilton will not be getting free AMG's anymore?

[Hakkola]

Wow, pretty cool. I can't wait to see who is driving for what team.

[rage2]

Originally posted by Tomaz
Interesting!

Hamilton FTW!!!

Does this mean Hamilton will not be getting free AMG's anymore?

He'll still get them. It's free promotion for Benz/AMG. If anything, he's contracted to only own McLaren's and Benz's while racing for them.

[Team_Mclaren]

^^ fuck AMGs he's driving for the Mclaren F1 that's sitting at MTC.

More on the driver selection, Button to Mclaren and Heidfeld to Mercedes? Hopefully not

[DJ Lazy]

Mercedez vs Mclaren vs Ferrari next year... Nice!

[buh_buh]

vs. RBR too

[cycosis]

thats awesome news!

[DJ Lazy]

Originally posted by buh_buh
vs. RBR too

yea, yea... those guys too....

[cloud7]

not surprising that they are buying into Brawn, but very surprising (at least to me) that they are basically taking the team over and renaming it.

[buh_buh]

what else would they do? Brawn has proven he can singlehandedly turn around a disaster of a team that was Honda and turn it into a championship winning team. Why would they displace the man who did this? Mercedes knows better than to take over. Look at the other manufacturers who entered the sport and tried to run it their way. Keeping Brawn the status quo is the way to do it.

[herragge]

Originally posted by buh_buh
what else would they do? Brawn has proven he can singlehandedly turn around a disaster of a team that was Honda and turn it into a championship winning team. Why would they displace the man who did this? Mercedes knows better than to take over. Look at the other manufacturers who entered the sport and tried to run it their way. Keeping Brawn the status quo is the way to do it.

Ross Brawn is the shit.
I'm buying my Brawn GP hat as we speak.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by buh_buh
what else would they do? Brawn has proven he can singlehandedly turn around a disaster of a team that was Honda and turn it into a championship winning team. Why would they displace the man who did this? Mercedes knows better than to take over. Look at the other manufacturers who entered the sport and tried to run it their way. Keeping Brawn the status quo is the way to do it.

Yeah but Brawn won due to the head start they have in the beginning of the season with the diffusers. Once the playing field is equalized, they weren't as hot.

[buh_buh]

well Ross Brawn was he one that found the loophole in the rules that allowed them the head start. Then after their first update that was supposed to further integrate the Mercedes engine with the chassis, they had tire heating issues, most likely due to the compromises they had to make to fit the engine in the first place, which likely had to do with their lack of pace. After that was resolved, Rubens won probably just as many races as Vettel or Webber (I don't have a schedule in front of me), and Button was just shitting the bed from the pressure. Brawn GP could not have won without Ross Brawn. Its not like this was a fluke either, as he did the same thing with Benetton and Ferrari.

[rage2]

It was actually 2 loopholes. First was the double diffuser, and second was the budget. 2009 had CFD CPU as well as windtunnel restrictions. Brawn developed 4 versions of the 2009 car with Honda footing the retarded bill (rumored to be around 700m invested in the 2009 car in 2008). Brawn had managed to chase 4 different aerodynamic philosophies, compare them, and see which set of compromises worked best.

I dunno how Toyota didn't manage to do the same thing, they had an even larger budget than Honda!

[Chris Elyea]

Originally posted by rage2
I dunno how Toyota didn't manage to do the same thing, they had an even larger budget than Honda!

Maybe because they nuked their aerodynamicist during their 2003 spy scandal? Don't know how long it takes for a new design team to get up to speed. (Pun not intended, but hey, it works)

F1 men found guilty of industrial espionage - April 24, 2007