(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
On Monday 9th November 2009 Daimler AG announced that they had purchased a majority shareholding in Formula One world championship winning team Brawn GP from team principal Ross Brawn. At the announcement Daimler Chairman Dr Dieter Zetsche confirmed that although the team would become Mercedes GP, Ross Brawn would remain as team principal and that any driver decision would test with him.
On Wednesday 23 December 2009, it was made official that seven time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher had come out of retirement following two years away from the sport and had signed a three year contract with the Brackley based outfit to drive alongside compatriot Nico Rosberg with Jenson Button moving to McLaren while Rubens Barrichello made the move to Williams.
In the teams first race as a fully fledged 'works' outfit at the Bahrain in 2010 Nico Rosberg qualified in fifth place while Michael Schumacher started the race from 7th. The pair went on to finish the event in fifth and sixth place respectively.
In the following race in Australia Nico Rosberg once again finished the race in fifth place with Michael Schumacher in 10th place.
The Malaysian Grand Prix, only the team's third race, and at the home circuit of their title sponsor PETRONAS Nico Rosberg secured the Silver Arrows first podium finish as the German ended the race in third place behind the Red Bull Racing duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
The team ended the 2010 season in fourth place in the championship on 214 points with Nico Rosberg finishing in seventh place on 142 points while Michael Schumacher finished his first season back in the sport in ninth place on 72 points.
In 2011, the team had a slightly more challenging season as they finished the year in fourth place once again with less points then 2010 as the collected 165 points compared to their total of 214 in 2010.
The 2012 season proved to be a breakthrough season as at the Chinese Grand Prix Nico Rosberg took the teams maiden Grand Prix victory where he also claimed their first pole position. He followed this result up later in the season with a second podium finish at the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix. At the European Grand Prix Michael Schumacher claimed his first podium since his return finishing the race in third place behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and the Lotus F1 Team's Kimi Raikkonen.
The 2013 season saw Lewis Hamilton join the Brackley based outfit following six seasons and winning one championship with McLaren. Many thought that the move was a gamble as he was going up against Nico Rosberg who had been with the team since the very start of the project in 2010.
Nico Rosberg took two Grand Prix victories in 2013 winning the Monaco and British Grand Prix while Lewis Hamilton scored his first victory for the team at the Hungarian Grand Prix. By this stage the team had been renamed Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. The Brackley based outfit finished the season in second place in the championship on 360 points while Lewis Hamilton finished the season in 4th place on 189 point while Nico Rosberg finished the season in sixth place on 171 points.
In 2014, a change of management saw Ross Brawn leave the team and replaced by Toto Wolff who become Executive Director (Business) while Paddy Lowe, who joined the team from McLaren became Executive Director (Technical).
Over the course of this season Mercedes completely dominated the year with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg securing 16 victories between them, the most ever by a single team in a single season a record that had been held by McLaren Honda from 1988 who had 15 race wins. The Mercedes pair also secured 18 pole positions from 19 race's with the Mercedes AMG Hybrid power unit secured all of the pole positions during the year.
Nico Rosberg secured the pole position trophy while Lewis Hamilton dominated the season finale in Abu Dhabi to take his eleventh win of the season to win his second Formula One world drivers championship finishing the season 67 points ahead of Nico Rosberg who in turn ended the season 79 points ahead of Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo.
(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
© Ben Johnston 2014
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