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Legends returning to earth can have far contrasting results for them and for everyone. The same can said of the legendary silver arrows cars of The Mercedes-Benz company. Benz, along with the famous Auto Union (Now Audi) were famous for their monstrous race and land speed record holding cars from the 1930s being immortalized in history by their silver livery. The W25 was the first of these legends to make an appearance in front of their German fans at Nurburgring in 1934. The legend goes that they were silver because the team scraped the paint off to save a crucial few kilos of weight. These cars literally dominated the field like no other in their day regularly taking 1-2s and even a 1-2-3 if I am not mistaken. Their great spell of the 30s was only broken because of the WWII. The company made a comeback in 1952 and culminated with the W196 and a famous mid season move by Juan-Manuel Fangio from Maeserati in 1955. The W196 similarly swept away all competition with the now immortal partnership of Stirling Moss and Fangio at the wheel. But an unfortunate incidence in 1955 when 80 people were killed due to a Mercedes race car at Le Mans meant that the company pulled out of motor racing one more time.
mercedes F1 Car
Mercedes did make a comeback in the 80s to touring car championships and later into Formula1 via their takeover of engine supplier Illmor. They enjoyed a fairly successful partnership with MacLaren till last year as we all know. But relationships between the two have been strained recently due to the ‘spygate’ scandal and also MacLaren’s ambitions to enter Mercedes’ turf of super-high performance street cars.
Last season was one of the most disruptive seasons in F1 history as we all know. The established order of old was turned up its head with the re-branded and re-energized Honda team taking over the title as well as contenders like Red Bull Racing and BMW also emerging out after far too many seasons of misery and fruitless investments. The season went on with the danger of F1 being scrapped altogether with the FOTA rebellion as also the Renault saga. But by the time the old leaders of the old order started making their presence felt, the season was already taken over by Brawn and Button (Who did make a great partnership f brains and Brawn!!!).
The season end was also no less dramatic off the track as Button announced his move to MacLaren in quick succession to Mercedes announcing their takeover of BrawnGP. Now MacLaren boast of an all English (and formidable) driver line up of Hamilton and Button who are successive world champions for the last two seasons. Not to be outdone, Mercedes announced Nico Rosberg as their German driver with Nick Heidfeld being linked to the team which has changed hands twice for the past two seasons. This leaves the Scuderia with Massa and Alonso. The next season is a truly mouth watering prospect.
Much of Brawn’s win can be attributed to the erstwhile Honda team producing one of their worst cars in their last season in F1. They spent almost half a season more than anyone else on last season’s car when they realized the failed bid that was their own last car in the season prior to that. Also last season as we all know saw one of the most radical set of rule changes being enforced in F1 with the return of slick tires, testing curbs as well as KERS to name a few. Amid all this a pattern did seem to have emerged. While Brawn and Red Bull were slugging it out at the top, silently but surely, the MacLarens and the Ferraris were perfecting their KERS, were beginning to understand Bridgestone’s slicks better and also would have started development on next season’s cars possibly earlier than the others. Brawn then did not have a factory backing. Understandably, theirs and the others resources would have been surely stretched thin. They would have spent a lot less time on next season’s cars. Surely the big guns will emerge stronger next season.
Next season will be interesting for all the big teams. Last season’s champion team would have had to start developing a new car which would not just have to live up to its billing of champion but also to the legendary name of the works Mercedes team’s car- the Silver Arrows. The break up (although a partial one) with Mercedes will leave MacLaren in the unfamiliar territory of being a big independent team but they will still get the Merc engines for the next six years (although they could be customer engines). They will be formidable nevertheless with their talented driver line up of Hamilton and Button. Ferrari will have to cope with the massive ego but will also enjoy the brilliance of arguably the best driver on the current grid in the form of Alonso. This coupled with Felipe Massa in the other car and possibly Schumi again in the pits could turn out to be god only knows what for them. While these might seem to be the pre season contenders, Red Bull cannot be left far behind with their strong show last year.
Thus we can see next season will be a first in many respects with legends of the grid like the Silver Arrows and old warhorses like Lotus retuning. Peter Sauber taking back his own team, the ever present threat of the Red Bulls and the Williams along with traditional heavyweights like the MAcLarens and the Ferraris. A sprinkling of newcomers like Manor GP, USF1, Campos Meta1 and old back of the grid teams like the Torros Rossos and Force Indias slugging it out too.
So it will basically be the Italian team with a Spaniard and a Brazilian going head to head in a possible three way battle at the top against an all English team with an all English line up with the two previous world champions against a Britain based German factory team with possible an all German line up next season. Let’s savour the season to come heralded by the return of a true legend!!!
