Mercedes Buys F1 Title-winning Brawn GP Team
German car giant Mercedes has sold its shareholding in the McLaren F1 team and bought its title-winning rival Brawn GP in a move that is also likely to see world champion Jenson Button move in the opposite direction to partner fellow British driver Lewis Hamilton at McLaren.
Mercedes will buy 75% of Brawn in partnership with an Abu Dhabi investment company but will continue as McLaren’s engine partner until 2015.
Brawn, who won both world titles in their debut season in 2009, will be rebranded as Mercedes Grand Prix.
Technical director Ross Brawn and chief executive Nick Fry will retain a 24.9% shareholding in the team. The remaining 75.1% will be split between Mercedes, which will own 45.1% and Abu Dhabi company Aabar Investments, which will own 30%.
As part of the changes the McLaren Group will buy back Mercedes’s 40% shareholding in its team by 2011 although the German company will continue to supply free engines and sponsorship to the team for at least the next six years.
The team’s official name will remain Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
For the new Mercedes GP team, Nico Rosberg is speculated to be their lead driver, with Nick Heidfeld his likely partner meaning that Button is likely to move across to McLaren.
The team has not yet confirmed Rosberg, who drove for Williams in 2009, but he is widely known throughout F1 to have already signed for the Mercedes team.
Button, who won the drivers’ title this year, has been trying to secure a pay-rise from his £3.5m salary but it seems Mercedes is not interested in granting his wish.
The 29-year-old Englishman visited McLaren with manager Richard Goddard last week, with Button now expected to join the Woking-based team for a salary around double what Brawn were offering.
McLaren and Mercedes said one of the reasons for them to split was because of McLaren’s road-car building ambitions. McLaren is launching a high-performance sports car called the MP4-12C in 2011.
McLaren chairman Ron Dennis said: ‘I’ve often stated that it’s my belief that, in order to survive and thrive in 21st Century Formula 1, a team must become 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 1 teams must broaden the scope of their commercial activities.
‘In the MP4-12C, which will be introduced to market in 2011, we have a car that has inherited the genes of the iconic McLaren F1 of 1994 and has already been the subject of much global media acclaim.’
