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Mercedes to supply engines but sell their McLaren stake
22.11.09
Amongst the hugely complex set of "musical chairs" announcements made last week, and on the same day that Daimler AG and its Abu Dhabi partner took a controlling interest in Brawn, it emerged that the Stuttgart Manufacturer will be selling the 40% stake that it has in McLaren back to the McLaren Group.
Mercedes-Benz will continue to supply its powerful British-built Formula One engines to the McLaren team for the next 6 seasons. Indeed, the Woking-based operation will continue to be known as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes whilst Brawn GP will become Mercedes Grand Prix. It is said that McLaren might have to part company with some £180m to buy out the Mercedes stake but that, in return, an undisclosed sum will flow the other way in respect of title sponsorship. The Mercedes engines are to be provided free of charge for the 6-year period.
It is not clear whether the injection of cash by Mercedes into Brawn represents "the significant sponsor" that Brawn's Nick Fry talked about in the late Summer, or whether there are other title sponsors lurking in the background to replace the lost Virgin Group backing at Brackley.
The McLaren arrangement, though, prompted Ron Dennis - McLaren Group's CEO - to refer to it as a "win-win situation." Dennis went on : "I've often stated that it's my belief that, in order to survive and thrive in 21st-Century Formula One, a team must become so much more than merely a team. That being the case, in order to develop and sustain the revenue streams required to compete and win Grands Prix and World Championships, companies that run Formula One teams must broaden the scope of their commercial activities. Nonetheless, all of our partners will, of course, continue to play a crucial role in our Formula One programme. For that reason, and because the engines they produce are very competitive, we're delighted that Mercedes-Benz has committed to continue not only as an engine supplier but also as a partner of ours until 2015 - and perhaps thereafter."
This suits McLaren; the partnership with Mercedes to manufacture the Mercedes SLR super sportscar at Woking has come to an end and McLaren is developing its own range of road cars now, with McLaren sourced and badged engines. So it is time that Mercedes confined itself to a sponsorship rather than technical agreement in respect of McLaren's Formula One activities.
McLaren is to target itself as being predominantly "British" (although Spanish banking group Santander is still on board whilst also sponsoring Scuderia Ferrari) and McLaren's drivers for the next three years are scheduled to be Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
This is all great for British fans - except that, at this moment anyway, there is no British GP agreed for 2010! The fans cannot be sure that they will see their heroes on British soil.
Such is the bizarre nature of Formula One as we start another year.
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