The team behind Hamilton’s success. The Mercedes secrets you never knew revealed
Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix (Formula 1 Rolex Magyar Nagydíj), Mercedes drivers have already managed to win 9 of the 11 races this season. It comes as no surprise the manufacturer have won the World Constructors' Championship 5 consecutive times starting in 2014. And the silver arrows are well on their way to securing another title this year leading the standings with 409 points to Ferrari’s 219. What is the reason behind their meteoric rise from finishing fourth in 2010? Could it be just the extraordinary driving skills of Lewis Hamilton, or is it more to this story?
Let’s take a step back and see how things evolved for Formula 1 and how did we get here.
The Formula One World Championship is recognized by the FIA ( Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. It sits above all else when it comes to big investments, big audiences, big endorsements, and big egos. A gigantically expensive sport where budgets are barely kept in check and the prestige gained by the winners translates into technological breakthroughs, racing pedigree, marketing strategies, and sales.
The pinnacle of motor-sport has come a long way from the days of Juan Manuel Fangio. The five-time World Championship winner dominated a sport that did not have the resources and marketing pull of today, right up to the British era. But the real change for Formula 1 was Bernie Ecclestone. He formed the Formula One Constructors Association in 1974 and begun selling the TV rights. Ecclestone led formula 1 from 1978 to 2017 and transformed the sport into the multibillion-dollar industry that it is today.
Many drivers have left their mark on the sport over the years. Their talent, determination and sheer will power gave us legendary rivalries stretching over multiple seasons. Several iconic clashes come to mind, Niki Lauda vs. James Hunt, Ayrton Senna vs. Alain Prost, Damon Hill vs. Schumacher, or the most recent one Lewis Hamilton vs. Sebastian Vettel.
But drivers are only as good as their teams. Formula 1 is the single greatest individual sport that involves so many resources and manpower to compete in. Even in the glory days of the privateers, teams were paramount in securing a Grand Prix win.
Starting with 1983, Formula One had been dominated by specialist race teams like Williams, McLaren, and Benetton. The engines they used were supplied by large car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Renault, and Ford. And it was Ford who broke with tradition in 2000, with their Jaguar team. This move almost immediately ended the high time of private and family team ownership.
It was the signal that led new manufacturer-owned teams to enter the sport once again. The last big manufacturers, Alfa Romeo, and Renault left the sport at the end of 1985. After the Ford involvement manufacturer teams like Renault, BMW, Toyota, Honda, and Ferrari were all over the grid and dominated Formula 1, taking five of the first six places in the Constructors' Championship, in 2006.
With the advent of the economic recession of 2008, manufacturers took a step back but have since starting returning. Renault, Aston Martin, and Alfa Romeo established factory teams between 2016 and 2018. They join, now long-timers Mercedes and their Italian rivals from Ferrari.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport returned to Formula One for the 2010 season after their owners, Daimler AG, bought a minority stake (45.1%) in the Brawn GP team. Their return was slow to yield results even though they signed seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Things started to pick up at the start of the 2013 season and the stage was set for a dominant rise that has made Mercedes one of the most successful teams in sport’s modern history.
So how did 2013 became the rebirth for Mercedes?
Torger Christian "Toto" Wolff
A man who began his career in motorsport racing in the Austrian Formula Ford Championship and the German Formula Ford Series, and then went on to win his category in the 1994 24 Hours Nürburgring.
Born in Vienna, to a Polish mother and an Austrian father of Romanian origin, Wolff bought a share of the Williams Formula One Team and became executive director of Williams F1 in 2012.
With Williams on the ropes, Torger decided to invest in Mercedes and bought 30% of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd, with 60% held by the parent company and 10% by Niki Lauda. He then joined the ranks to become Executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
His influence was critical in going from struggling for podiums to dominating the championship.
Wolff took over the co-ordination of all Mercedes-Benz motor-sport activities and the team has since achieved a winning rate of 66%, 92 of 111 pole positions, 58 front-row lockouts and 165 from 222 possible podium finishes.
A true force to lead a winning team.
Paddy Lowe
Lowe moved to the Mercedes Formula One team as Executive Director on 3 June 2013. Before that he worked for McLaren as Head of Research and Development.
A true British motor racing engineer Paddy Lowe graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1984 and has been involved in motor racing since joining Williams in 1987.
He worked on seven championship-winning cars from 1992 to the F1 W07 Hybrid that sealed the deal for Mercedes in 2016. In 2015 Lowe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. A much-needed recognition for a man with such a lengthy career in racing engineering.
Paddy is no longer with Mercedes after signing a deal with Williams in 2017, but his legacy and leadership influence made a great contribution to the success of the team.
For the F1 W07 Hybrid he worked with Aldo Costa, an Italian engineer that joined Mercedes after winning 8 constructor titles with rivals Ferrari, during the Schumacher years.
Mercedes AMG F1 M10 EQ Power+
In 2013 the FIA announced the intention to change the 2.4-liter V8 engines to 1.6 liter V6 turbo engines for the upcoming season. The implications were enormous. First of all, turbochargers were back after being scrapped for decades. These internal combustion engines were limited to 15,000 rpm, although they rarely exceed 12,000 rpm during Grand Prix due to the new reliability and fuel restrictions.
Thus Mercedes was compelled to make big changes to the new car. The F1 W05 was born.
It used Mercedes's new 1.6-litre, V6 turbocharged engine, the PU106A Hybrid with 800–850 horsepower (600–630 kW). Since the introduction of the engine manufactured by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, Mercedes powered cars have won 83 out of 111 races.
The team kept developing this engine from their 2014 championship-winning season all the way up to 2017 when the FIA again changed the rules and manufacturers needed to adapt once more.
The Mercedes Benz car that will take to the track this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix is the Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+.
It uses a modernized version of the same, mandatory, 1,6 liter V6 turbocharged engine that Mercedes so easily adapted on their cars in 2013. But this time, regulations allow for 950–1,000 horsepower (710–750 kW). And the numbers tell the whole story. So far in 2019, the Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+ has won 9 out of 11 races, finished 18 times on podium and has 4 Fastest laps under its belt.
According to Mercedes, more than 700 employees work 24 hours a day, seven days a week on design, development and manufacturing activities for this winning Formula 1 team.
More than 250,000 working hours go into the design of an F 1 car, and a further 200,000 hours plus are spent on production. And that doesn’t include the pit crews and all other people who travel to race tracks around the world. In the pits over 20 people ensure things go smoothly during the race and that Mercedes drivers get the best pit and lap times.
Two mechanics are making front wing adjustments or remove the nose cone if need be.
Three mechanics are needed for each tire – one to operate the wheel gun, one to take the tire off and one to put a new one on the hub. Two technicians stabilize the car, and two people operate the rear and front jacks to lift the machine when it arrives in the pit box.
There are two back up front and rear jack crew members, one or two who operate the lighting system and a chief mechanic that oversees the entire procedure.
The F1 is one of the purest forms of motor-sport the world has to offer. A high adrenaline, high torque, technology-driven series that fascinates racing enthusiasts and fans alike. It seems like for now Mercedes dominates the 2019 world championship becoming the driving force behind Formula 1.
Will they win again this weekend in the Hungarian Grand Prix?
Let’s take a step back and see how things evolved for Formula 1 and how did we get here.
The traveling circus
The Formula One World Championship is recognized by the FIA ( Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. It sits above all else when it comes to big investments, big audiences, big endorsements, and big egos. A gigantically expensive sport where budgets are barely kept in check and the prestige gained by the winners translates into technological breakthroughs, racing pedigree, marketing strategies, and sales.
The pinnacle of motor-sport has come a long way from the days of Juan Manuel Fangio. The five-time World Championship winner dominated a sport that did not have the resources and marketing pull of today, right up to the British era. But the real change for Formula 1 was Bernie Ecclestone. He formed the Formula One Constructors Association in 1974 and begun selling the TV rights. Ecclestone led formula 1 from 1978 to 2017 and transformed the sport into the multibillion-dollar industry that it is today.
The best of the pack
Many drivers have left their mark on the sport over the years. Their talent, determination and sheer will power gave us legendary rivalries stretching over multiple seasons. Several iconic clashes come to mind, Niki Lauda vs. James Hunt, Ayrton Senna vs. Alain Prost, Damon Hill vs. Schumacher, or the most recent one Lewis Hamilton vs. Sebastian Vettel.
But drivers are only as good as their teams. Formula 1 is the single greatest individual sport that involves so many resources and manpower to compete in. Even in the glory days of the privateers, teams were paramount in securing a Grand Prix win.
Starting with 1983, Formula One had been dominated by specialist race teams like Williams, McLaren, and Benetton. The engines they used were supplied by large car manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Renault, and Ford. And it was Ford who broke with tradition in 2000, with their Jaguar team. This move almost immediately ended the high time of private and family team ownership.
It was the signal that led new manufacturer-owned teams to enter the sport once again. The last big manufacturers, Alfa Romeo, and Renault left the sport at the end of 1985. After the Ford involvement manufacturer teams like Renault, BMW, Toyota, Honda, and Ferrari were all over the grid and dominated Formula 1, taking five of the first six places in the Constructors' Championship, in 2006.
With the advent of the economic recession of 2008, manufacturers took a step back but have since starting returning. Renault, Aston Martin, and Alfa Romeo established factory teams between 2016 and 2018. They join, now long-timers Mercedes and their Italian rivals from Ferrari.
The secret behind the Mercedes team
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport returned to Formula One for the 2010 season after their owners, Daimler AG, bought a minority stake (45.1%) in the Brawn GP team. Their return was slow to yield results even though they signed seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Things started to pick up at the start of the 2013 season and the stage was set for a dominant rise that has made Mercedes one of the most successful teams in sport’s modern history.
So how did 2013 became the rebirth for Mercedes?
The Boss
Torger Christian "Toto" Wolff
A man who began his career in motorsport racing in the Austrian Formula Ford Championship and the German Formula Ford Series, and then went on to win his category in the 1994 24 Hours Nürburgring.
Born in Vienna, to a Polish mother and an Austrian father of Romanian origin, Wolff bought a share of the Williams Formula One Team and became executive director of Williams F1 in 2012.
With Williams on the ropes, Torger decided to invest in Mercedes and bought 30% of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd, with 60% held by the parent company and 10% by Niki Lauda. He then joined the ranks to become Executive director of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
His influence was critical in going from struggling for podiums to dominating the championship.
Wolff took over the co-ordination of all Mercedes-Benz motor-sport activities and the team has since achieved a winning rate of 66%, 92 of 111 pole positions, 58 front-row lockouts and 165 from 222 possible podium finishes.
A true force to lead a winning team.
The engineer
Paddy Lowe
Lowe moved to the Mercedes Formula One team as Executive Director on 3 June 2013. Before that he worked for McLaren as Head of Research and Development.
A true British motor racing engineer Paddy Lowe graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1984 and has been involved in motor racing since joining Williams in 1987.
He worked on seven championship-winning cars from 1992 to the F1 W07 Hybrid that sealed the deal for Mercedes in 2016. In 2015 Lowe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. A much-needed recognition for a man with such a lengthy career in racing engineering.
Paddy is no longer with Mercedes after signing a deal with Williams in 2017, but his legacy and leadership influence made a great contribution to the success of the team.
For the F1 W07 Hybrid he worked with Aldo Costa, an Italian engineer that joined Mercedes after winning 8 constructor titles with rivals Ferrari, during the Schumacher years.
The heart of the car
Mercedes AMG F1 M10 EQ Power+
In 2013 the FIA announced the intention to change the 2.4-liter V8 engines to 1.6 liter V6 turbo engines for the upcoming season. The implications were enormous. First of all, turbochargers were back after being scrapped for decades. These internal combustion engines were limited to 15,000 rpm, although they rarely exceed 12,000 rpm during Grand Prix due to the new reliability and fuel restrictions.
Thus Mercedes was compelled to make big changes to the new car. The F1 W05 was born.
It used Mercedes's new 1.6-litre, V6 turbocharged engine, the PU106A Hybrid with 800–850 horsepower (600–630 kW). Since the introduction of the engine manufactured by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, Mercedes powered cars have won 83 out of 111 races.
The team kept developing this engine from their 2014 championship-winning season all the way up to 2017 when the FIA again changed the rules and manufacturers needed to adapt once more.
The Mercedes Benz car that will take to the track this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix is the Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+.
It uses a modernized version of the same, mandatory, 1,6 liter V6 turbocharged engine that Mercedes so easily adapted on their cars in 2013. But this time, regulations allow for 950–1,000 horsepower (710–750 kW). And the numbers tell the whole story. So far in 2019, the Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+ has won 9 out of 11 races, finished 18 times on podium and has 4 Fastest laps under its belt.
The silent heroes
According to Mercedes, more than 700 employees work 24 hours a day, seven days a week on design, development and manufacturing activities for this winning Formula 1 team.
More than 250,000 working hours go into the design of an F 1 car, and a further 200,000 hours plus are spent on production. And that doesn’t include the pit crews and all other people who travel to race tracks around the world. In the pits over 20 people ensure things go smoothly during the race and that Mercedes drivers get the best pit and lap times.
Two mechanics are making front wing adjustments or remove the nose cone if need be.
Three mechanics are needed for each tire – one to operate the wheel gun, one to take the tire off and one to put a new one on the hub. Two technicians stabilize the car, and two people operate the rear and front jacks to lift the machine when it arrives in the pit box.
There are two back up front and rear jack crew members, one or two who operate the lighting system and a chief mechanic that oversees the entire procedure.
The F1 is one of the purest forms of motor-sport the world has to offer. A high adrenaline, high torque, technology-driven series that fascinates racing enthusiasts and fans alike. It seems like for now Mercedes dominates the 2019 world championship becoming the driving force behind Formula 1.
Will they win again this weekend in the Hungarian Grand Prix?
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