And I believe that you are wholeheartedly wrong. Put it this way, if McLaren WERE willing to give Mercedes controlling interest, if Ron WASN'T building sportscars do you think Mercedes would be buying Brawn? No, me neither. Ergo those two events have nothing to do with the course of events. This is a business decision, not a fanboy convention.

I'm not defensive about it, I'm just not really willing to tolerate nonsensical postings proffering themselves as arguments.

Spot on sir

And the drivers get the most.

The teams will soon require the drivers to change their names to Nico Mercedes and Nick Benz to maximise publicity.

"Benz wins the race".

No one reason and dozens of small ones.

Primarily the new McLaren road car and the inability for the team to be called just Mercedes.

For full PR you want the headline to read Mercedes wins not McLaren-Mercedes or Brawn-Mercedes.

clearly Rosberg and vettel are high on the list.

Methinks that the new engine deal bewtween Mac and Merc will NOT have Mac telling Merc who they can sell their engines to.....

I think there are a number of reasons but that the single biggest factor, and possibly what initiated "wandering of eyes" in the couple, was the SLR. Even before the car was out, McLaren people were publicly complaining about how they "had" to make a car that they didn't like because that's what Mercedes wanted (ie front-engined, luxurious rather than light like the F1, etc).

McLaren basically publicly disowned and criticized the car as being diametrically opposite of what they would make if could make what they wanted. I remember being shocked at how public they were with their criticisms and wondering how Mercedes would be reacting to it.

Fast-forward to today and you notice that Mercedes engineers describe their SLS almost primarily in terms of how much better of a design it is than McLaren's SLR. You read everywhere how the SLR was so much greater the costs were associated with all its complicated composite construction etc yet heavier and not as stiff as the SLS with it's much more standard metal construction.

I think the SLR sparked a lot of discord between the two and the SLS and MP4-12C cars are emblematic of how both companies decided they wanted to make their identities in roadcars independent. I think this separation now in F1 is a mirroring of desire to be separate in road cars.

Same for BMW - funding whole BMW Sauber team was cheaper than simply supplying the megabucks V10s to Williams.

Also they get complete control, same as Mercedes who are already going for all-German drivers.

We all see how BMW worked out though

For a divorce, this has been unusually civil.

Unless I have been seriously misled by poular culture.

Mercedes Benz are going to accept that the FIA's (aka Mosley's) caning of McLaren was just and fair? From a lunatic who ranted and raved after being caught having his privates on parade about the disgraces of M-B and BMW in WWII! I'm sure that McLaren was a perfectly excellent high profile icon for Mercedes to hang their badge on, just that they wanted to have a crack at what BMW tried and failed to achieve. And there would have been added impetus with the mutual desire of both partners to go in different directions with regard production supercars.

You and others have been long time antagonists of McLaren who will probably never let bygones be bygones, even after RD stepped aside. This I suggest colours your opinions. Of course equally, my belief that the Spygate thing was ridiculously overhyped, colours my belief that the split was for strategic reasons, rather than an angry divorce. All evidence with the ongoing harmony is that I am right in my claim - M-B will continue to work well with Mac as a supplier of engines.

The reasons? Simple really. Mercedes want their own team. At McLaren the car was known as a McLaren, not a Mercedes and it made good sense to start afresh with a winning set up that now bears the Mercedes name only.

Precisely- McLaren's independent road car project, and the events of the last few years might provide some contribution to the desicion, but ultimately it comes down to one thing- M-B want to own and run the whole show under their own name, and McLaren weren't about to sell up.

A whole range of factors, primarily the fact that Mercedes didn't want to be tied into something that they didn't have direct control over. The scandals could have been a part of this who knows. But I'm more inclined to believe that it's more about Mercedes themselves wanting to have more control of their own project, intertwined with the conflicting shift of direction by McLaren into the sports cars ect only urged it on.

Perhaps it just didn't jell as well as it once did. Buying Brawn would be pretty temping too no doubt.

I am pretty sure that 5 years from now, when the Benz engine contract runs out, McLaren will be fully capable of building it's own engines. They will have learned a lot from their road car engine experience.

I think this post has pretty much hit the mark. I would add that the real reason (the road car thing being just a consequence and the 'gates just an excuse) is probably that Mercedes eventually wanted to really control a team (as a factory team), while McLaren/Dennis have always wanted to preserve their independence. Probably rightly so, looking at Sauber now. The situation is not very different from the Williams-BMW one, I think (with exception then that Mclaren is likely much more secure financially). Considering those diverging goals, the divorce is quite amicably. Likely both Mercedes and Mclaren still see the other as a "plan-B"; McLaren may hope to have Mercedes as a failsafe if they can't get an own engine program up and running with good results, and Mercedes may hope to have McLaren as a failsafe it it turns out their factory team can't quite be as succesfull as they were in 2009.

No..it obviously because babies were getting their finger caught in the Mclaren strollers...

On a serious side there was an obscure post(i can't find it and before the main thread started) on this Forum a couple of Months ago that predicted Merc. buying Brawn.
,well done to the OP.

And we can all see how Williams is working


I want to belive that this will be a win win situation ,F1 needs some positive shake.....for Mercedes its a pretty clear,they bought a winner team..........for Mclaren it depend whether they have the money and expertise to produce good F1 engine....as Ron 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."
I think that Ron has a vison Mclaren to produce F1 engine for them and for other F1 teams(like Cosworth).....
they are probably waiting to see whether there will be some change on engine rule for the coming years so they can start from scratch with the new rules and not wasting money on current V 8`s.

I wonder if Mercedes got a sniff of a possible scandle emerging with regards to Vodafone´s obviously racist policy in South Africa and didn´t want to be involved if the brown stuff hit the fan (which it most definitely should IMO).
Anyone wishing to know what I´m referring to can read this article.
http://capepartyuk.blogspot.com/2009/11/ra...uth-africa.html

Lol! The bring back apartheid mk.2 website. It must be sad to be a nostalgic racist.

Oh do stop talking tripe. The people commenting here are commited non racists. Read the article before making a stupid comment.

Hey Rhodie interesting article thanks but why would the author blog about it now when the Yeboyethu stock brochure clearly mentions that it's something that occurred in 2008??

Anyway on-topic, don't think it played any role in the Macca - Mercedes divorce but I'm sure that the current sponsors of McLaren will be extra sensitive when it comes to scandals and the team from Woking.
BTW Macca should be very careful to stay away from controversy, not only for it's sponsors but also because the single force that kept them in F1 after Spygate has jumped ship to Brawn.

If you're referring to Mercedes they're still at McLaren too. And common sense kept McLaren in F1.

Yes as I see it really a case of a "official works" Mercedes team and a "Semi-works" team at least for a few years.

Have you read a sample of the posts on that website and its associated links? Dispicable. Its a site complaining about percieved whit discrimination. IE; basically complaining about the loss of the good old days, when they ruled and blacks were subservient.

It´s Ron, a no brainer.

The big shots was always called from Ron, Mercedes got no saying. They only was paying.

Ron is a clever man.

So you're saying it's OK to discriminate against a person based on the colour of their skin then?
Last time I looked that was called racism.
I'm not interested in discussing the site or the links on the site. This is about the article and what appears in the article backed up with links to substantiate the content, and the relevance it has to Vodafone, Mercedes and F1.
Do you understand now?
BTW, it´s despicable, perceived and white. I just thought I'd help out.

LOL

no one has mentioned they can in theory run brawn on the cheap, surposidly. im pretty dubious about that, just cos f1 is something you end up spending vast sums on...

macca is best waiting till the engines change regs change before making there own, or subcontracting it out to say... http://www.zytekgroup.co.uk/Default.aspx?tid=166 or http://www.aerltd.com/ unless merc give them pants engines

Very simple. Mclaren road vehicles ambitions + independance from Mercedes. This makes like 99% of it. Spygate+liegate contribute to rest 1%. Main reason is road vehicles ambitions, without this all other reasons wouldn't matter.