Mercedes and Racing

History in Racing:

Mercedes Benz originated in 1880 by two men Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. Since its origin, they were famous for their fast and sporty cars. Early in the 1890s, an Austrian car dealer Emil Jellinek entered the Mercedes in car races and often won.

Mercedes introduced its first racing car ‘Simplex’ in early in 1900s, with its innovative design the simplex dominated the racing industry for years.

They won their first major race in 1914, the French Grand Prix. In 1920, the company manufactured the ‘Tropfenwagen’, which made them unbeatable in all races for a decade.

They set a record speed of 270 miles per hour in 1930 with its elite race driver Renneilter Alfred Neubauer.

Mercedes entered Formula One racing in 1954 and finished 1 and 2 in the race.

The Setback:

In 1955, Mercedes took retirement from racing, after a tragedy of a car crash killed close to 80 spectators in a Le Mans race, ‘A 300 SLR smashed into another car and went flying into the stands.’ This devastating incident forced them into retirement from racing industry.

Best Comeback Ever:

It was late 1980s, Mercedes returned to sports car racing in style. They introduced their new compact car, the W201 190 class, which broke 3 world records. The 16-valve engine ran a race of 50,000 kilometers at Narudo high-speed track in Italy for 201 hours at a top speed of 247 kilometers per hour.

Mercedes used a loophole in the specification of the race and built an engine that could be used only for this one race. This was in 1994 at Indianapolis 500. They introduced the concept of push rod engines to the racing world.
In 1993, Mercedes entered Formula One racing as an engine supplier of the F1 team of Sauber.

A New Alliance:

Mercedes joined hands with McLaren in 1997, formed a F1 team of its own, and was labelled as Team McLaren Mercedes. They signed up David Coulthard as their driver, who went on to win the first races of 1997. This was the first success for them after that of Juan Manuel Fangio’s in 1955. McLaren Mercedes went on to win for three consecutive years. In 2005, Mercedes won 10 out of 19 races.

Status:

McLaren Mercedes has proven to be one of the best teams in history of Formula One racing. They have the best and most efficient team, from the drivers to the technicians. The drivers such as, Lewis Hamilton and Gary Paffet are one of the best drivers in the racing world. The management includes big names such as, Ron Dennis and Martin Whitemarsh. The technical team includes geniuses such as, Jonathan Neale, Paddy Lowe and Neil Oatley. Lewis Hamilton is the star on the team. He finished third in his first race for Mercedes. He broke a 40-year record of podium position at the start of his first season. Lewis got nine-podium position in his first nine races. In 2007, he won four races and finished second for the champion, losing by just one point to Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.

Overview:

Mercedes has always been the winners from their first race and continue to be winners until today.