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Mercedes GP unveils car colours

The Mercedes GP Petronas team unveiled its official colour scheme for the 2010 season, in an event held at the German car maker's museum in Stuttgart

Mercedes, who took over world champion team Brawn GP to race under its own name this year, showed off its new colours using a 2009 car, before its new challenger is unveiled at the start of next month.

The new car, which sports Mercedes' classic silver colours, will make its first public outing at the Valencia circuit on 1st February, when the first testing session of the pre-season will kick off.

The 2010 car will be called MGP W01.

"With today's presentation of our new Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 team, a new and certainly the most important chapter of over 100 years of Mercedes-Benz motorsport history begins," said Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug. "The new Formula 1 season will offer challenges which will be bigger than ever before in over sixty years of the sport's history.

"We look forward to the cooperation with our drivers Nico Rosberg who has enormous capabilities and perspectives, and with seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher who is no less motivated than at the time when he began his professional motor racing career with Mercedes-Benz and then made his first step into such a successful Formula One career with our support.

"Today I also cordially welcome our new title partner Petronas as well as our co-investor Aabar/IPIC together with all of our team partners. I warmly welcome all our colleagues from last year's World Championship team Brawn GP headed by Ross Brawn and Nick Fry to the Mercedes family. There are challenging tasks ahead of us and we will tackle them with power, consistency and full motivation."

The team will be led again by Ross Brawn, who will be forming a partnership with seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, making a sensational return to the sport after retiring in 2006.

Schumacher will be partnered by Nico Rosberg.

Brawn could not hide his enthusiasm during the birth of the new team.

"I think for me it is several things, one is a wonderful future for our team which a year ago never had a future, such an exciting partnership and such an exciting involvement for us," said Brawn, who achieved great success with Schumacher during their stint at Ferrari.

"It is a great thing, working with Michael again is a very special treat and something I didn't think would happen again.

"It's so exciting and so motivational for me and the team to be involved. Nico is a very exciting prospect who will make a wonderful partner for Michael. Nico has been in a racing for a number of years but he will enjoy working with Michael and seeing how a seven-time champion operates.

"But also the final thing is being the part of a rebirth of a racing brand so iconic as Mercedes. It's been 55 years since Mercedes had its own racing team. I have been very privileged in my career to be involved in special things but this is very exciting to be involved in."

Rosberg said driving for Mercedes was a dream come true for him.

"For sure for me it is very, very special, a dream come true to be able to drive the first silver arrow for more than 50 years," he said.

"I'm looking forward to it, working with people like Norbert [Haug], Ross and Nick [Fry] and having Michael as team-mate is great. It is going to be a great season."

Schumacher admitted he has been overwhelmed by the reaction of his fans since he announced his comeback.

"We obviously saw some of it in the summer time and I was surprised to see the reaction, now with the announcement being part of the silver arrows team," Schumacher said.

"It is a great emotion and it is a great feeling that I am getting from the outside, so a big compliment to all fans that see it like this. It gives me a greater feel and a greater push."

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