Mercedes Benz Motorsport
Both Daimler and Mercedes had entries in the first automobile race Paris to Rouen 1894.
The Mercedes Simplex of 1902, built by DMG, was the first purpose built race car—much lower than their usual designs—which were similar to horse carriages; that model dominated racing for years. In 1914, just before the beginning of the First World War, the DMG Mercedes 35 hp won the French Grand Prix, which was a blow to the French at that time.
Karl Benz's company, Benz & Cie. built the "bird beaked", Blitzen Benz that set land speed records several time, reaching 228.1 km/h in 1909. That record gained that model the reputation of being faster then any other automobile—as well as—any train or plane. They constructed many aerodynamically designed race cars. The Benz Tropfenwagen is described as having a teardrop shape and it was introduced to motorsport in the 1923 European Grand Prix at Monza.
In the 1930s, the new joint company, Daimler-Benz, with their mighty Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows, dominated Grand Prix racing in Europe together with its rival, Auto Union, while setting speed records up to 435 km/h (270 mph). The team was guided by the big Rennleiter Alfred Neubauer until the company ceased racing.
1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe from the Ralph Lauren collection
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1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe from the Ralph Lauren collection
In 1952, Mercedes-Benz returned to racing with their small and underpowered gullwinged Mercedes-Benz 300SL, which won the 24 hours of Le Mans, the Carrera Panamericana, and did well in other important races of that time such as the Mille Miglia. On 1954-07-04, Mercedes-Benz returned to Formula One racing with a one-two win at the French Grand Prix with the Mercedes-Benz W196. This was a very important and victorious day for Germany, especially as later that day, the German football team won the Soccer World Cup. Mercedes-Benz dominated Grand Prix and sports car racing until retiring its teams at the end of the 1955 season, as planned at the beginning of that year. In addition, the Le Mans 1955 disaster, where a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR collided with another car and killed more than eighty spectators, caused the cancellation of several races that year.
Mercedes-Benz entered some big limousines in Rallying in the 1960s and late 1970s. It was intended to enter Rally racing with the Mercedes-Benz W201 in the early 1980s. Yet, as all wheel drive and turbochargers were introduced by the competition (Audi Quattro) at that time, this was cancelled. Instead, on August 13–21, 1983 at the Nardo High Speed Track in southern Italy, the new compact-size W201 190 class, sporting a 16-valve engine, built by Cosworth, broke three FIA world records after running almost non-stop (only a 20-sec pit stop every 2 1/2 hours) in a total of 201 hours, 39 minutes, and 43 seconds—completing 50,000 km at maximum speed of 247 km/h. It went on to become the 190E 2.3-16 touring model. Mercedes-Benz returned to sports car racing, (Sauber-Mercedes-Benz winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1989) and DTM touring car racing in the late 1980s.
In 1994, the Indianapolis 500 was won with an engine from Mercedes-Benz which, realizing that a loophole in the rules for production-based engines would include any pushrod engine, built a very unusual purpose-built pushrod engine with a significant power advantage. This was done knowing that the "forgotten" loophole would be closed immediately after they took advantage of it, and so the engine would in fact be usable only for this single race. |
Mercedes Benz McLaren
In 1993 Mercedes-Benz made its return to Formula One as an engine supplier to the debut F1 team Sauber, with a V10 engine manufactured by Ilmor. In 1995, the normally aspirated Mercedes-Benz-Ilmor F1-V10 moved to McLaren, replacing Peugeot. Mercedes-Benz increased its shareholding in the Ilmor company in 1996 and took full control in 2005. They have continued to design and build engines for McLaren. In the opening race of the 1997 Formula One season David Coulthard produced victory for Team McLaren Mercedes-Benz, and ushered in a new era of success. It was a significant result in racing, McLaren's first victory for three seasons and the first win for Mercedes-Benz since Juan Manuel Fangio's success at the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. McLaren and Mercedes-Benz went on to win one constructors' championship in 1998 and two drivers' championships in 1998 and 1999. However, recent years have seen a significant decline in Mercedes-Benz's F1 success, as they won just four races over three years, while suffering numerous engine failures and retirements. The 2005 season was much more successful for McLaren, winning ten of the nineteen races, but finishing second to Renault in the constructor's title, and with its driver Kimi Räikkönen finishing second in the Driver's title to Fernando Alonso of Spain. The 2006 season seems to indicate a return to the F1 front for the English-German outfit and their "silver arrows" (Silberpfeile).
Mercedes-Benz and McLaren have, in 2003, jointly created a supercar. The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren has a carbon-fiber body with a 5.5l V8 supercharged engine. This is the same block as featured in other Mercedes-Benz automobiles, such as the SL55 AMG and the CLS55 AMG, it has however been tweaked to give 454kw and 780nm of torque. The SLR has a maximum speed of over 330km/h and costs approximately $500,000. [4]
In the future many anticipate there to be a range of McLaren--Mercedes supercars in Woking (McLaren’s manufacturing headquarters). The most recent new joint-venture model, expected to reach production, is the mid-engine P8 supercar. Based around a unique carbon fiber monocoque, manufactured by McLaren, the P8 was originally predicted to receive the new naturally aspirated 6.3L V8 from Mercedes-AMG, but experts now say that the engine will be modified for the car and will probably be twin- turbocharged to produce in excess of 600 bhp. The car is still in development, but likely to reach production to go on sale in early 2008, and have a price tag less than that of the SLR.
Mercedes Benz 2005 Racing Season
McLaren Mercedes hoped to improve on a poor 2004 season, which saw McLaren-Mercedes-Benz finish a distant fifth in the championship, a staggering 193 points behind world champion Ferrari. 2005 indeed witnessed a dramatic gulf in performance between McLaren and Ferrari, though in McLaren's favor. However McLaren was not able to fully capitalize on this opportunity due to the strength of Renault. Renault dominated the early races but by mid-season commentators named the McLaren Mercedes-Benz MP4-20 as the fastest car. Nonetheless McLaren suffered from the poor reliability of their otherwise much superior Mercedes-Benz engine. Engine failures at two consecutive races saw Kimi Räikkönen penalized 10 places from his qualifying place which handicapped his races. At the Grands Prix of San Marino and Germany, Raikkonen retired while in the lead. In the end, McLaren saw a much stronger second half of the season, and fought for the constructor's title with Renault, only to lose it in the last race. McLaren won ten races (seven for Raikkonen and three for his team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya), to Renault's eight (seven for eventual World Champion Fernando Alonso and one for his team-mate, Giancarlo Fisichella). The difference in points was due to the excellent podium record of the Renaults when McLaren won races, as opposed to the string of retirements for the McLarens when Renault won races.
More recently, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren has become available for purchase. Details of above (under McLaren). |
