The Weekly Grapevine

The German Face-Off

This year two different teams have topped the constructors' championship, and in each instance the majority shareholder has been a German luxury car manufacturer.

Yes, the differences in modus operandi between Mercedes-Benz and BMW, particularly with regard to their Formula One activities, could not be more marked; are, in fact, even more divergent than the difference in approaches adopted by Honda and Toyota as outlined in this column a few weeks back.

But, by the same token, there are many common threads, with certain players popping up on both sides of the great divide between the two companies - one of which goes down in history as having invented the automobile whilst the other started life as a manufacturer of aero engines (hence its blue/white whirling propeller logo) which was all but bankrupted by the world war.

Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber F1.08) leads Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren MP4-23 Mercedes-Benz) during the Grand Prix of Bahrain © XPB/LAT

Mercedes had, of course, been devastatingly successful when competing in its own right in the mid-fifties before withdrawing from motorsport completely in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, in which over 80 were killed.

In the eighties the company returned, first with low-key saloon and sports car entries, then rather more successfully with Peter Sauber - of whom more anon - in the World Sports Car Championship.

Still, it was a shock to see a 'Concept by Mercedes-Benz' sticker on the airbox of the first Sauber F1 car - Ilmor-powered, at that - as it stood in the pitlane of South Africa's Kyalami circuit in March 1993.

Here was a company which had once swept all before it, returning first as 'concept' partner. Later it rebranded Ilmor units as Mercedes-Benz before progressively increasing its holding in Brixworth-based Ilmor Engines (est. 1983) from 25 percent in 1993 through 55 percent after the death in an aircraft accident of founding partner Paul Morgan in 2001 to full ownership in 2005, whereupon it was renamed Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines.

Along the way it was persuaded to become engine partner to Sauber for 1994 before Ron Dennis and McLaren enticed the Three Pointed Star away from the Swiss team for 1995 (and to date), with David Coulthard ending a three-year McLaren drought by winning the 1997 Australian Grand Prix for the partnership.

In January 2000 Mercedes-Benz acquired 40 percent of McLaren from then-sole owners Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh, and paddock talk was that this would gradually increase until the German company totally controlled the McLaren Group - which had in the interim designed, developed and put into production the Mercedes-McLaren SLR supercar.

That, though, did not come to pass, for in January 2007, the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company, a wholly owned company of the Kingdom of Bahrain, acquired a 30 percent in the McLaren Group. Thus the shareholding structure became 40 percent Daimler, 30 percent Mumtalakat Holding Company, 15 percent Ron Dennis and 15 percent TAG Group (Holdings) SA, with last-named being Ojjeh's company.

Overall control of McLaren, though, lies with Dennis and TAG, who, in terms of their pacts and a memorandum of agreement with Mumtalakat, jointly control 60 percent of the stock of the company.

Although chatter suggests Mercedes was miffed by the sale - believed to have gone through without M-B's knowledge - the official word is the Germans are comfortable with owning the majority share without having control of the company ...

Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard lead the 1998 Australian Grand Prix in their McLarens © LAT

Returning, though, to sporting matters: After Coulthard's antipodean win McLaren-Mercedes became an increasingly powerful force, culminating in Mika Hakkinen's back-to-back 1998/9 titles, which, in turn, were complemented by a constructors' champion crown in 1998 - now, though, making it a full decade since Mercedes last celebrated world championship glory.

It can, of course, be argued that 2007 should have seen both team and engine manufacturer back on top, but, as history relates, that was not to be after McLaren was convicted by the FIA for the roles of McLaren's management and drivers in 'Stepneygate'.

But, tellingly, Mercedes, headed by former touring car racer/rallyist and journalist Norbert Haug, stuck by its team, publicly demonstrating its support by hosting the launch, attended by no less than Bernie Ecclestone, of McLaren's MP4-23 2008 challenger within the hallowed halls of Mercedes' imposing museum in Stuttgart.

But, somehow this year has not gone to plan: Lewis Hamilton has been erratic; whilst new signing Heikki Kovalainen is not yet totally 'on it'. Hamilton won the opener in Melbourne, yes, but was overshadowed by the Finn in Malaysia, although a pit stop glitch compounded the Brit's woes.

Then, both were penalised for their part in blocking Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso, so their respective performances there remain difficult to judge.

However, in three of the last four races cockpit electronics have certainly cost the McLaren-Mercedes valuable time and, arguably, a title: in Brazil last year the electronics system is said to have reset itself; whatever the problem, Hamilton dropped from sure championship challenger to yesterday's hero in one very easy move.

In Australia Kovalainen deployed his rev-limiter by accidentally brushing a button whilst ripping off a visor; and in Bahrain Hamilton selected the wrong engine settings, which in turn invoked anti-stall instead of whatever launch procedures are now legal in the wake of the ban on launch/traction control.

Thus McLaren-Mercedes lays third on the constructors' log, having led through the first two races after an extremely encouraging start to the season in Australia.

Now contrast this with BMW's record in Formula One: having entered as engine supplier to Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham team in 1982, the company took its (and F1's) first turbo-charged world championship the following year.

If ever the corollary to Ford's famous saying 'Racing improves the breed' was sought, BMW provided it with the racing performance of its four-cylinder engine, which was not only based upon a design then doing duty in 1602 and the original Three Series, but used blocks actually bought from scrap yards then left to rot further in order to mature their metal composition. Sort of breeding in reverse ...

The BMW powerplant of the Brabham BT50 at the 1982 South African Grand Prix in Kyalami © LAT

Although nominally rated at 1200 horse power, 'grenade' engines used in qualifying were said to be 200 bhp stronger, but with no dynamometer capable of measuring the output, their power was estimated on the basis of power curve extrapolation ...

But, with a title won and a ban on turbochargers on the horizon, BMW withdrew at the end of 1987, and not seen in an F1 paddock again until 2000 - after it had spent a year (successfully) chasing Le Mans victory in a Williams-built V12 LMR, which used an engine based upon the McLaren F1 road car.

Simultaneously, though, BMW and Williams were thrashing about various European circuits as they honed a V10 engine which, fitted in the back of a Williams chassis, would taste victory just 21 grands prix after first being blooded in Melbourne in March 2000.

The omens for more wins, plus championships to add to BMW's 1983 spoils, looked better than good, but whilst the former followed in dribs and drabs (in total, between 2001 and end-2004, BMW engines crossed the line first on ten occasions), the feeling in Munich, where the engines were built in BMW's Forschung und Innovationszentrum (research and innovation centre), was that a great engine was being done grave disservice by the British team.

Recriminations followed, and in early 2005 whispers suggested BMW was locked in engine-supply talks with Sauber, whose too-oft subservient relationship with Ferrari seemed doomed.

The talks rapidly escalated, particularly after BMW inspected the facilities assembled by the unassuming then-62-year old Peter Sauber in the Alpine village of Hinwil, where he was born and originally built his first (club) racing car.

So impressed was BMW with his state-of-the-art wind tunnel - commissioned by Sauber to ensure that any prospective buyer of the team would not up sticks and move Sauber away from a community which had become increasingly reliant upon the local 'spend' of a Formula One team within its borders - that in June 2005 the German company announced it had bought control of PP Sauber AG, effective immediately.

The deal, though, was complicated by two factors: first, an option to continue supplying engines to Williams was still in place - eventually the British team switched to Cosworth units for what turned out to be the legendary company's swansong season - and Credit Suisse, majority shareholder in PP Sauber AG and title sponsor of the team, would only sell out on a phased basis.

The financial institution will exit the team at this season's end - both as shareholder and sponsor - although Sauber (the man) retains his 20 percent in the operation until further notice, and hence the team's official title 'BMW Sauber' in recognition of BMW's 80 percent ownership and full control of the operation.

Contrast this with Mercedes' situation as 40 percent (majority) shareholder in a team it supplies with engines, with no effective control ...

Daimler chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche at the McLaren launch in Stuttgart © LAT

Under BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen's watch the team 'from Munich and Hinwil' has been ramped up, with the latter receiving a massive capital injection, enabling an increase in manning levels of 150-odd to 430 versus the pre-merger 275.

In total BMW Sauber employs around 700, up on the combined pre-merger total of 575 although reductions have hit the engine division due to long-life engines.

This increase has enabled BMW to embark on decidedly left-field aero solutions - think twin-tower wings, think antler horns - by running three shifts in its wind tunnel, and also be up to speed in firming up its 2009 design, when aero concepts proposed by the Overtaking Working Group consisting of Rory Byrne (ex-Ferrari), Bob Bell (Renault) and Paddy Lowe (McLaren) come into play.

Impressively, all this has been achieved at cost reduction to BMW, for as engine supplier it had no means of off-setting costs through sponsorship, and as such was carrying the full financial burden.

Now, as fully-fledged team, BMW Sauber's marketing experts are able to sell sponsorship as full value, with the income said to exceed the operating costs of the chassis division and race team ...

Thus, BMW is in total control of its F1 destiny, yet more cost-effectively than as pure engine supplier. In Heidfeld and Robert Kubica it has two top drawer drivers, at bargain basement prices, too.

The manner of their snaring is pure textbook: at end-2005 the German was under option to Williams for 2006 but not 2007, so Theissen snapped him up for the latter season, making the signing rather public. Williams thus held knowing they had a driver definitely on his way out, and therefore let the option lapse ...

In Kubica's case it was a matter of striking when the iron reached smelting point. The Pole had tested a Renault after winning the World Series by Renault championship, and whilst Flavio Briatore and Engineering Director Pat Symons dithered, Theissen struck.

Result: Kubica was signed as tester for 2006, and, after proving a consistent half second quicker than Jacques Villeneuve, replaced the 1997 world champion from Hungary onwards.

BMW Sauber F1.08, Ferrari F2008, and McLaren MP4-23 Mercedes in parc ferme © XPB/LAT

The net effect is that BMW has achieved, or surpassed, every one of the targets it set for the first two years of its original three-year plan: points and finishes in the first year; podiums on merit in the second. In fact, the first podiums came a year early, with more following on in 2007 as the team scored points in every race, eventually topping the 100-point mark.

For the third year BMW set itself the target of mixing it with the two top teams and taking a first win. The first objective has plainly been achieved, and thrice in the three races this year to date victory has been close: retirement by Hamilton in Melbourne; slip by Raikkonen in Malaysia; the pole position for Kubica in Bahrain - these scenarios spell out how close, yet how far, victory has been ...

Still, although neither Heidfeld or Kubica has an F1 win to their name, skill and consistency in and out of the cockpit has ensured a team manned by two non-grand prix winners heads - for the first time in F1 history - the constructors' table.

That was certainly not in Theissen's three-year plan. Nor, yet, was overall championship victory, which, if things continue as they have this year, is certainly on the cards.