Category: Mercedes-Benz

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes in secret Pirelli test furore

2013 Chinese Grand Prix

Last week Mercedes AMG conducted a secret tyre test in Barcelona at the invitation of Pirelli and the other teams are not happy about it.

So much so that Christian Horner has confirmed Red Bull has lodged an official protest just hours before tonight’s Monaco Grand Prix. Ferrari has also made official enquiries to the FIA seeking clarifications over the secret test.

It’s being reported that Pirelli asked Mercedes to a private test after the Spanish Grand Prix where they would undertake 1000km of track time. Due to poor weather it took three days to complete the test.

At the time Mercedes was coming off three pole positions in a row, only for their race pace to see them drop well out of race contention due to dramas with tyre wear. Although, Paul Hembery from Pirelli says there was “no relevance” to those issues in the clandestine test.

Formula 1’s sporting regulations prohibit in-season testing at F1 racetracks unless it is part of a young driver test, a straightline aerodynamic test or a 2010-spec car is used. The issue here is Mercedes is understood to have used a 2013-spec F1 W04 chassis for the testing.

Christian Horner isn’t falling for claims from Pirelli that the test was above board. “What’s disappointing is it has been done in not a transparent manner that a three-day test has taken place with a current car running on tyres that are going to be used at the next grand prix,” he said. “Irrespective of what you call it, that’s testing.”

Hembery claimed there was little to be gained by Mercedes, stating “In reality, we were looking at next year’s solutions and trying a variety of different (things)… Mercedes haven’t got a clue what on earth we were testing in reality.”

When asked why the other teams had not been notified of the Mercedes test Hembery replied, “You know in Formula One that when you start talking about something six months could pass before you found a solution.

“In reality sometimes you just have to get on and do it.”

[Source: Reuters & Autosport]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Monaco GP: Qualifying report

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg has made it three from three by claiming pole position on a drying track at the Monaco Grand Prix overnight. It’s his third pole position in a row and the fourth on end for Mercedes AMG.

Intermediates were required in Q1, then slicks in Q2 and Q3. As conditions continued to improve the times came tumbling down and Rosberg’s time (1:13.876) was around one tenth quicker than teammate Lewis Hamilton (1:13.967).

Following the all-Mercedes front row is an all-Red Bull second row; Sebastian Vettel (1:13.980) nudged out Mark Webber (1:14.181) who briefly held provisional pole until final few seconds.

With the race start all important in Monaco the third row will be the one to watch, with Kimi Raikkonen (1:14.822) in P4 and lightning starter Fernando Alonso (1:14.824) in P6.

Jean-Eric Vergne had a rare win over his Toro Rosso teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, and will start from P10. Ricciardo couldn’t manage to get himself into Q3 and will start from P12.

Speaking after qualifying Mark Webber said: “Yeah I’m pretty happy with that. It’s very easy to be towards the back when you have a disruptive session with those conditions, but we managed to survive all the tricky sections and put together a reasonably tidy effort.

“The conditions are changing and the tyres are tricky, so starting on the second row here is not bad. It’s a long race and a lot of strategy can unfold, so we’ll see what we can do from there.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo was less happy with his effort: “I am disappointed with that qualifying, as I think this afternoon was a missed opportunity. I really wanted Q3 today and with the mixed conditions, the opportunity was there.

“I feel the car has got a good pace on a long run, certainly better than in qualifying, but with the difficulty in overtaking here, starting twelfth is not ideal. So now we need to come up with a good strategy to try and make up for this afternoon.”

Full qualifying positions, along with the post-quali press conference transcript, can be read after the break.

[Pic: Mercedes AMG]

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Mercedes-Benz

“I wanna drive!”

Mercedes A45 AMG

If you made the world’s most powerful hot hatch do you think you’d put your two Formula 1 drivers on a push bike to advertise it? That’s exactly what Mercedes-Benz has done with its A45 AMG.

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2013 Nürburgring 24 hour race in pictures

Porsche at the 2013 Nurburgring 24 hour race

If you didn’t follow the 2013 Nürburgring 24 hour race over at AUSringers on Monday here’s your chance to catch up, pictorially at least. After the break you’ll find a huge gallery of photos with thanks to Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.

In the end, thanks to heavy rain and fog during the night session the race was red flagged. Around nine hours were lost in total, and while that was a shame, the race still provided all the drama and excitement you would expect from a 24 hour race around the Green Hell.

For the record the #9 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 won the race. At the wheel was Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards and Nicki Thiim. Amazingly it was the first ever Nürburgring 24 hour race win for Mercedes-Benz and Bernd Schneider. Indeed, after several attempts it was the first time that Schneider had finished the race.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

What a fizzer!

Michael Schumacher on the Nurburgring Nordschleife in Mercedes F1 W02

When we heard that Michael Schumacher would be driving a modern day F1 car around the Nordschleife we were excited. We should have known better. It promised so much and delivered so little.

Cruelled by F1’s in season testing restrictions, which limited the speed Michael could do, and coupled with a marketing exercise from Mercedes-Benz it was a total fizzer.

Such a shame, because it could have been so good. Just as well Mercedes ended up winning the main show, the Nürburgring 24 hour race, so that it could walk way from the Ring with some dignity in tact.

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Formula 1 McLaren Mercedes-Benz

Paddy Lowe to join Mercedes in two weeks

Paddy Lowe

Earlier this year one of Formula 1’s worst kept secrets was confirmed when Paddy Lowe was despatched by McLaren to perfect his bonsai skills after he had the temerity to sign a new contract with Mercedes. McLaren were determined to stick to their guns and make Lowe sit out his contract and deny his move to Mercedes until after the 2013 F1 season.

Pleasingly, for the sanity of all concerned, word has come through from Mercedes that Lowe will be joining them officially on 3 June.

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Mercedes-Benz

2014 Mercedes-Benz S Class revealed

2013 Mercedes-Benz S Class

Mercedes-Benz has released its latest flagship model, the all-new S Class (W222). Every iteration of the S Class brings with it a fearsome task of living up to the best car in the world tag that many, including Mercedes themselves, expect it to reach.

Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars said this at the car’s launch: “Rather than being about safety or aesthetics, power or efficiency, comfort or dynamism, our aspirations were ‘the best or nothing’ in every respect. No other car stands for the Mercedes-Benz brand promise more than the S-Class.”

At launch the S Class comes with the choice of four engines, all of which meet the latest Euro 6 emission standards:

  • S 400 HYBRID (225kW/370Nm 3498cc V6 + 20kW/250Nm electric motor)
  • S 500 (335kW/700Nm 4663cc V8 twin turbo)
  • S 350 BlueTEC (190kW/600Nm 2687cc V6 turbo diesel)
  • S 300 BlueTEC HYBRID (150kW/500Nm 2143cc 4 cylinder diesel + 20kW/250Nm electric motor)

An S 500 plug-in hybrid will follow with the promise of a sub 4.0l/100km fuel consumption rating.

As you’d expect the S Class is chock full of driver aids and electronic gubbins. There’s too many to mention, but a few highlights include: ‘Road surface scan’ suspension, which reads the road ahead for bumps and prepares the suspension accordingly; ‘First class rear’ seating; two large high-res TFT displays, one for the dash cluster, the other for navigation and infotainment; climate control with an ‘active perfuming system’; and the S Class is the first car in the world to feature full LED lighting throughout.

Most of all, though, for a large luxury saloon the latest S Class looks quite good. Its proportions are sound and aside from the large front grille we think Mercedes has penned a stylish, if subdued, S Class that the dictators of the world will gladly continue to call their own.

There’s much more to learn about the S Class and you can get a good introduction with the videos, pictures and press material after the break. If you really want to get to know the new S Class then make sure you download the full press kit which has over 100 pages of information.

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2013 Spanish Grand Prix in pictures

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

Here’s your photographic refresher of what went down at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. As usual there’s an excellent assortment of images, there’s 97 in all, starting with a sea of Maranello red.

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

2013 Spanish GP: Qualifying report

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG, 1:20.718) proved his pole position in Bahrain was no fluke with a repeat performance at the Spanish Grand Prix overnight. It’s also the third pole in a row for Mercedes, following Lewis Hamilton’s effort in China.

Hamilton put in a blinder of a lap in Q2, but could only marginally improve on that in Q3 (1:20.972) and will start tonight’s race alongside Rosberg. A front row lockout for Mercedes, their first for the year.

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull, 1:21.054) will start from P3 ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus, 1:21.177).

Row three was to be an all Ferrari affair, with Fernando Alonso (1:21.218) in P5 just ahead of Felipe Massa (1:21.219). However, during Q2 Massa was adjudged to have impeded Mark Webber (Red Bull) and has been penalised three places. Massa will now start from P9.

Mark Webber (1:21.570) could only manage a time good enough for P8, although he will now start from P7 after the Massa penalty.

“I was disappointed with the lap in Q3 and lost a lot of time in the last sector,” said Webber. “I’m normally quite strong there, but I was in trouble with the rears. It’s a sensitive game these days and you need to get everything lined up. So, in the end I’m disappointed with the last lap, but everything else I was happy with. It will be an interesting race tomorrow.”

Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso, 1:22.127) will start in P11, one place ahead of his teammate Jean Eric-Vergne (1:22.166). Ricciardo was desperately close to making it into Q3 and was denied at the last moment by Hamilton’s lap (1:21.001) and was relegated to P11.

“I was happy with my lap in Q2, even though you can’t help feeling a little bit disappointed to miss out on Q3 by such a small margin,” the young Australian said. “But we are close and we can have a good race tomorrow. We have made progress and we are once again looking as competitive as we did in China.”

The transcript from the post-qualifying press conference can be read after the break and the revised grid order after penalties to Felipe Massa and Esteban Gutierrez can be seen here.

[Pic: Mercedes AMG]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing

Mercedes wants to give everyone ‘The Finger’

2013 Bahrain Grand Prix

Mercedes F1 powerbroker Niki Lauda has confirmed the team is chasing the signature of three-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. Lauda, a triple world champion himself, says he’s merely following in the footsteps of former Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug.

“I continued what Haug began,” Lauda told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Dr Helmut Marko, the other Red Bull anti-hero—in these parts at least—understands Lauda’s motivation and said, “Niki should absolutely be trying to get Vettel.”

Would Vettel actually want to go to Mercedes in any case. He’s in the fortunate position, really, where he could write his own cheque for any team in pit lane, except for Ferrari perhaps.

And if Vettel did choose to represent his fatherland in a Silver Arrow we must presume it would be Nico Rosberg forced to look for a new gig. Mercedes having spent all that money on Lewis Hamilton and all that.

It’s a cut-throat world in Formula 1.

That said, Lewis and Sebastian in the same team; we’d like to see that. The fallout would be spectacular!

[Source: Speed TV]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Kubica confrims Mercedes F1 simulator test

Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica has confirmed he has spent time in the Mercedes AMG F1 simulator, although he remains coy on the finer details of his experience.

“I can say yes, I was there. But I cannot say how many times or how many laps I did,” Kubica said. “But there is this rumour to which I say, yes, I was in the Mercedes F1 simulator in the past.”

The test is likely to have come about thanks to Kubica’s relationship with Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes motorsport. Wolff arranged for Kubica to test a Mercedes DTM car in February as well.

Kubica isn’t sure, or at least isn’t saying, if he has any future test sessions in the simulator planned.

Last November Kubica said he was uncertain if he would ever be able to recover sufficiently from the injuries he sustained in February 2011 to drive an F1 car again. But he now thinks he has the required strength to drive some of the less physically demanding F1 circuits.

[Source: Autosport]

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Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz

Schumacher to drive Nordschleife in F1 car

2011 Mercedes GP W02

Michael Schumacher’s first gig as an official Mercedes-Benz brand ambassador is perhaps one of the coolest things you will read today. Not only will the seven-time world champion get back in a Formula 1 car he’ll be doing so around Nürburgring Nordschleife. How cool is that!

Schumacher will pilot a 2011-spec Mercedes GP W02 for a demonstration lap around the ‘Ring during the 24 hour race weekend on 19 May. As you might expect he’s quite looking forward to it too.

“I have a lot of fond memories of the Nürburgring and am really looking forward to giving fans and friends from my home town of Kerpen, which is quite close to the Nürburgring, something to remember as they see me drive by,” Schumacher said.

“But it will be a fantastic experience for me too, driving along the Nordschleife in a state-of–the-art Formula 1 Silver Arrow, particularly in view of the fact that the Silver Arrow’s legend began here. Posting a lap in a modern Silver Arrow on the most beautiful and most testing circuit in the world, what a brilliant mix—it’s every motor racing driver’s dream!”

It will be the first time a contemporary Formula 1 car has been driven on the Nordschleife since Nick Heidfeld did so in a BMW Sauber F1.06 back in 2007 (see video below). No official lap time was recorded when Heidfeld drove the ‘Ring and Stefan Bellof’s 6 minute 11 second lap set in a Porsche 956 in 1983 remains the all-time ‘Ring record.

We’re not sure if Michael will be chasing that record, but imagine if he did he could easily break the 6 minute barrier. That would be wow!

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