All the same, white, black and grey would look better than silver and turquoise ...

How: probably a re-creation done on a BGP-001 chassis.

Why: anyone's guess, really. Mercedes may want to be the first team to release something this season.

Ross Brawn said they need every hour to get the new car ready for the first test.

It makes perfect sense to me. Mercedes want a launch event but the Brawn budget needs to be spent on the car. Why divert effort to creating a show car when they should be building this years championship winner? This way, they just have the paint shop busy.

Why not just wait a week and show the press the real thing at the track?

The would just be wasting peoples time doing it with last years model painted up.

I'd say it's because Mercedes want to present their team before anyone else does. Since they can't ask Ferrari to move their release back, Mercedes have to move theirs up. And since they don't have the car ready, they need the next best alternative: a BGP-001 in full 2010 war paint.

I'm sure Honda are going to love seeing the car they paid for painted in Mercedes colours...

The launch is at Stuttgart - Mercedes home. There must be some commercial advantage for them in doing this.

PR is PR, with Schumacher and Mercedes both returning to the fabled Grand Prix motor racing arena they can get PR on every news service in Europe & South America & Asia & rich Middle East nations (elsewhere they couldn't less, rightly so)

Why get PR once when it can be done twice? Many cars will be launch at the test, much less PR value at that event.

They gave up all claim to it when they sold it to Ross Brawn.

It still doesn't make any sense to use it.

Come and celebrate the return of the Mercedes brand to F1 in 2010.
Well be marking this grand occasion by showing off a car developed by Honda in 2008.

That's something you'd expect from a team on the level of Arrows or Spyker, not Mercedes.

Don't agree. It's what you expect from any team which would rather spend time and money developing a new car rather than creating a show mule for a media launch.

Only F1 nerds are aware of this fact. The general public will see nothing but a livery, sponsor names and the return of MS.

This show will steal a lot of thunder instead of blending in with the crowd at the first test.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Meredes own Brawn. Brawn own the car. Therefore, Mercedes owns the Brawn car.

The team is a evolved Tyrell anyway when you want to check the team's complete history.

A car designed by Honda...

But As Modern Lover says, the general public will be blissfully unaware of this

I wonder how much the dental bill was in the Honda boardroom as a result of all that grinding of teeth...

I don't dispute that they own the cars.

But showing them of to the press as examples of Mercedes cars with two drivers that have never driven them is almost pointless.

They aren't going to get on the front page of all the motoring magazines by doing that when other teams are launching brand new cars during the same week.

It's not like Honda can stand up and say "Mercedes cannot launch their livery on that car becase we paid for it".

Are you serious, you are joking right, please tell me you are joking
Pointless ??

Yes for the car nerds like us, it will be pointless, i agree. But for the general public it will not, they dont care about the car. They care about the return of schumacher. Its already been mentioned that it will be broadcasted live by three tv channels. And offcourse, they will hit the frontpages. Theyll hit the tv news and frontpages all over the world. If you look back 1month. Who got the most attention. Mercedes and Mclaren. Even though ferrari signed alonso, i never saw the coverage of them beeing so quiet. Mclaren and Mercedes stole everything.
But i agree for cars nerds in here, its pointless

I guess the points of the launch are to show off the new paint scheme/sponsors and to tell the world that Merc will be competing in this season with two German drivers, one a little more well known than the other

They won't refer to any developments on the car they are showing

Flamboyant launches like the Mclaren Valencia launch in 2007, are no longer de rigueur espcially in todays financial climate. The launch of a new Mercedes team should be held in Stuttgart, the home of Mercedes Benz. A German team with German drivers? Where else?

What can a journalist do with it?
All they can do is write more about Schumacher returning, which they have already done to death.

There are going to be brand new 2010 spec cars launching in the same week which will give them far more scope for articles and which will have to take precedence on the cover and first few pages of the magazines.

Getting there first is completly pointless PR if you don't have the biggest message for the journalists to use.

i totally agree, except, and yes its sad, but i think they have got the biggest message, to the general public the most important thing, is to see schumacher back. Not the car.
But i can be wrong. Lets see. Maybe autosport runs ferrari on the frontcover, but otherwise i exspect all major magazines to run Mclaren or Mercedes on the frontcover, new car or not.
About general media, im sure the mercedes event will be put on the cover more places then the ferrari forexamble.

I can't believe you guys can even argue about this. Whoever is not interested in the Mercedes launch without the new car, just don't watch it. Simple.

yeah the inofficial season begins next week with the presentations of the big teams, the next monday it's testing season already ... gotta love it

Its a branding and PR exercise for a "NEW" team. No one has seen what colors or livery the team will sport and none of the media will care that its on the 2009 car.

When you say Honda car - its ironically the same difference - its a car built by the SAME people , its just that the brand has changed from Honda->Brawn->Mercedes.

And in all fairness , the 2009 car ran with the MERCEDES ENGINE, so I can argue that the 2009 car has MORE MERCEDES than Honda in it (Honda car with Mercedes engine )

There was no Mercedes branding on the car last year because Honda was bankrolling the team to the tune of £100 million+.

They really aren't going to be happy about Mercedes taking all the credit for last season by completely rebadging a car they developed.

How is that 'taking all the credit'

What a very strange line of argument this is. Mercedes has bought that championship winning car and can do with it what they like. If I bought your car second hand I could paint it with black Hammerite and reupholster in in leaopard skin and you'd have no say in the matter. Just like Honda.

tommorow it may be just new livery, but seriously, I can't wait to see AMG logo on F1 car:)

You're missing the point, it doesn't matter if they own the cars, Mercedes isn't going to create a PR scoop by rolling out last years car with some Mercedes logos on them.

The whole reason for them launching their car first is to show off the the brilliant German engineering and efficiency, not the paint scheme.

They would look like complete amateurs compared to all the other car launches this week if they did this.

Is this a fact ? How do you know ?

How then - after Brawn GP winning the championships - did Mercedes advertise and derive millage from it ? You do know that Mercedes ran an ad campaign featuring the SO CALLED Honda cars.

Do you understand what the term "SOLD" means ?

This is where you've misunderstood then. They are not showing off brilliant German engineering and efficiency, they are showing off a paint scheme, nice new sponsors and, most importantly, their brace of top-line German drivers. The brilliant German engineering and efficiency should be on show a week later at the test track.

im sorry but it is you that totally miss the point


no matter cant wait until the first test of all the cars

Not really, I think. IIRC very little was preserved from Tyrell when BAR bought its factory, unlike the name change from BAR to Honda and the namechange from Brawn to Mercedes (the change from BAR to Brawn was mostly a rather dramatic downsizing, but still the same team). Ken Tyrell himself was not involved (other than to sign for the sale), and BAR brought its own technical staff with some Tyrell personnel moving to the (later aborted) Honda project of 1999. Maybe some of the mechanics and engineers were retained, but it is likely borderline to say that BAR is a direct continuation of Tyrell. So, Mercedes is an involved BAR would be more correct, I think.

The present Renault team OTOH, is an evolved Toleman. OK, over 25 years a lot has changed since they last raced under that name, but the changes (except for the name changes, of course) were always very gradual. Whereas Tyrell pretty much died in late 1998.

**** yeah!!!!

So will mercedes, so I don't understand the point of mentioning the bolded part. Mercedes are getting maximum PR. Other teams are heaving a car launch. Why not have two if the opportunity arises. Tomorrow, I garuantee, any news agency worth a dime will have their eyes on stuttgart. Publicity for Merc and merc alone. Then, the test starts. Boom, the car is launched. More publicity for mercedes. There's nothing bad in any of that. It's bloody clever (if slightly cunning) PR. They're maximing exposure. And that's before anyone has even mentioned schumacher.

I promise you, by the first grand prix MercGP will be the most talked about team. And that just puts a smile on sponsors faces, right (providing it's for the right reasons which, in this case, it will be)?

Mick, Nico and Nick

And two F1 heavy weights. Ross and Norby.

They did last season; Brawn GP was powered by their engine. There is no way they will interfere in 2010 with car development, and track operations. It may take them three years before you can point a finger and say this gulash is credit solely to Merc cooking. (Just a thought; I will sustain that conviction even if they should win a second WCC and/or WDC).

You mean the Brilliant German engineering that comes from German towns Brackley and Brixworth? Both car and engine are British engineered.

Based in Brackley and Brixworth, but with a very international engineering staff. Pointless to talk about nationalities.

Engines under British management were blowing up like road-mines on the track when there was a change in ownership; Mercedes got, undeservedly, a black eye for it. Things changed soon after Stuttgart got involved beyond forking up money for the ops; problems got fixed and that’s the end of it. Now, if you guys blamed them for ills of Ilmore engines, surely they can receive credit for having one of the better engines in F1.

So, how is it German engineering? I would be willing to bet anything that there are far more British engineers involved at Ilmor and Brawn GP than Germans. The only thing German about Mercedes F1 is the 45% ownership, and drivers. (30% is UAE owned, and 25% British owned).

2 years ago, we had 3 countries designing and building chassis, with 5 countries designing and building engines. Mercedes have been the only manufacturer not to do their own engine. They bought British engine maker, Ilmor. We now have no German designed/made engines.

Following the withdrawal of Toyota, we also have no German designed/built chassis.

The only 3 nations left that design and build engines are England, Italy and France, with England, Italy, Switzerland, and (allegedly), the USA building chassis.

That is the "German Engineering" that will be on show.

He, I didn't start the 'german engineering' argument and I don't agree with it either.
I'm sure there are more brits than germans involved, but also lots of other nationalities.
You can make an argument that britain has the best engineering infrastructure for top level motorsport engineering (motorsport valley),
buth their are a lot of non-british engineers and companies involved, that help to sustain it.

But let's not take this thread further off-topic.

Huh, really? Must've missed that one ...

About publicity:
BBC will be in Stuttgart with DC, Brundle, Sara Holt and Jake.
http://twitter.com/jakehumphreyf1/status/8161982028.

1. Ask Kimi about his DNFs.
2. Ask JB about his DNFs.

Merc took over majority ownership of Ilmor in 2002. Before this, McLaren Mercedes used 100% British Ilmor engines.

1. Ask Kimi about his DNF's
2. Ask Mika about his DNF's

Ilmor = 2 WDC's + 1 WCC.
Mercedes = 1 WDC + 0 WCC.

if the factory is in england or not, doesnt change the fact that mercedes know how produced the best engine in formula1 the last two years. When they took over Ilmor the engine programe was crap. (Ilmor never got over the beryllium ban) Mercedes turned it around, especially when the switch to V8 engines was made. Mercedes appointed Ola Källenius, to be in charge of that program, which he managed with great succes. Ola was not working for Ilmor, but was brought in from another position within Mercedes

mercedes = 2wdc brawn and mclaren