For the past 100 years, Mercedes, then as Mercedes-Benz, came onto the Grand Prix scene like a blitzkrieg, devastating all comers almost immediately with advanced designs, superb technology, a lot of money and the best drivers available. Then they would disappear for decades while the mere rumors of a comeback struck terror into the Grand Prix constructors both before and after WWII.

Mercedes first made a huge impact on Grand Prix racing when they won the prestigious 1908 French Grand Prix. It was all quiet on the western front until 1914, when three Mercedes team cars walked over the highly favored Peugeots on July 4th; the French were soundly defeated and equally furious. A month later the French and Germans would be at war. A devastating defeat for Germany was followed by years of economic woes. No serious Grand Prix car would emerge from what was now Mercedes-Benz for the next 20 years.

In February of 1934, to conform to a new 750KG Grand Prix formula, Mercedes-Benz introduced the W25, a breakthrough design with a 325 hp supercharged engine and a rear-mounted 4 speed transaxle. Mercedes would dominate Grand Prix racing with the W25, the W125 and the W154. The Italians decided to alter the formula for the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix to the 1.5 liter rules, a class in which both Maserati and Alfa Romeo had competitive cars. Since the Germans had no such race cars, the Italians assumed that they would finally be able to break the German winning streak in Libya. However, Mercedes built two cars, largely in secret. The cars finished first and second. “..the W165 Mercedes-Benz scored one of the most stunning and memorable wins in the history of motor racing. Italian cars and drivers were humiliated,” wrote Karl Ludvigsen.

Another war and 15 years would pass with virtually no participation from Mercedes-Benz in Grand Prix racing. But for the new 2.5 liter Grand Prix Formula, in 1954, Mercedes introduced the W196 streamliner and open wheel cars for the 1954 and 1955 season. After a few teething problems they once again walked away with the laurels in both years. Shock and awe, to be sure

Ironically, it was yet another tragedy of enormous proportions that caused Mercedes to totally withdraw from racing for another thirty three years. The Le Mans disaster caused the board of Daimler-Benz to reconsider its participation in racing; they also knew that there was little else to prove, having won both the sports car and F1 championships in 1955.

There was to be no roar from Daimler-Benz until January 1988, when they announced a return to racing, participating in the Group C Endurance events with Sauber. It was successful, with 16 out of 18 wins, but it was not Grand Prix. In 1991 it was decided to drop out of the WSC events and concentrate on GT racing. But in the backroom the boys were playing Formula 1 behind the curtain.

Neither shock nor awe but struggle
The WSC era was followed by a complex arrangement to assist with the creation of the Mercedes Ilmor motor and the Sauber chassis but resulted in no concrete successes. By 1995, an agreement with McLaren provided the Mercedes Ilmotor engine to Ron Dennis’ team. A breakthrough came in 1997, as David Coulthard won the Australian Grand Prix. This then was Mercedes’ first F1 success since Monza in 1955, but it was only a half win; the chassis was McLaren and even the Ilmor motor was engineered by Swiss Mario Illien and Brit Peter Morgan (the Ill and Mor of the name). In 1998, the McLaren-Mercedes won championships with Mika Häkkinen driving and in 1999 he did it again. Hamilton would take the McLaren-Mercedes to another world championship in 2008 and Button would manage another with the Brawn-Mercedes in 2009.

But the Anglo-German effort, as successful as it was, was not pure Mercedes. That would be remedied in 2010 when the full might of Mercedes-Benz got behind F1 and Ross Brawn along with that other guy they lost to Ferrari. Of course it is hard to tell where the 2009 Brawn ends and Mercedes begins. But since then it would not be shock nor awe but a difficult struggle to maintain position in mid pack. Mercedes was back in full, but no one was shaking in their Guccis.

The Race
The Chinese Grand Prix was an epic event in its own right. It was truly great seeing Rosberg and Schumacher one-two on the front row. Amazed at what appeared to be Schumacher’s giving way to Rosberg (orders?) we were saddened when he retired due to a loose wheel nut on Lap 13. It was even nice seeing a more or less proper Mercedes-Benz winning a Grand Prix once more. Rosberg did a superb job throughout the race, a well deserved victory. But it was his 101th Formula 1 race and only his first victory. Something here does not equate, but it may be part of the mysteries of F1 today. Y’just never know.

Perez (who led the race briefly on Lap 14) and Kobayachi were on right up front with the Sauber Ferraris. Sixty years ago these guys would never have made it this far…they are fearless and tough but would have been caught out by a tree, a bridge, or a lamppost.
Of course we’ve been harping for two years that Kobayachi should be given a good ride…lacking that at least the Sauber team has come up with a good ride themselves, moving from the back of the grid to the front, no doubt thanks in large part to their two tiger drivers. Could Sauber be the next Red Bull?

Everyone had written off Vettel and yet he worked his way up from 14th to second at one point, until caught in the high strung sprint race near the end. Still, he did well and still finished 5th. No one should write off Vettel yet for this year, it’s far too early.

The track at Shanghai appears to be as boring as the current crop of constipated circuits can be, but it nevertheless provided the most stirring driving and racing we have seen this year, perhaps in several years. With six World Champions on the track and cars that are as evenly matched as ever, the racing is awesome. Positions 2-8 changed so fast in the latter part of the race that it was impossible to keep up, even though everyone had their last tire change. We looked in vain for update positions on the screen and they too, seemed unable to cope with the place changes. By lap 48 Vettel was in second, with Rosberg still holding the lead. But the race between Button, who finished second, and Hamilton, 3rd and Weber who placed 4th was amazing. The fearless foursome pushed the aggressive Perez and Kobayashi down to midfield positions and left no doubt as to who was a World Champion and who was not.

So will Mercedes now continue on a winning streak as dictated by their tradition? Maybe, but that’s the fun of F1. Y’just never know.

BTW: Time and time again we have referenced all four of the books in the “Racing Color” series edited by Karl Ludvigsen. They are handy, very accurate, and allow us quick insights into what the Germans, French, British and Italians were doing in any given era. “German Racing Silver”, also written by Ludvigsen, was published by Ian Allan Publishing in 2009 and was a great help in writing this article. The poster and cutaway above also appear in the book.

Race Results

1	ROSBERG	Mercedes	1h36m26.929s
2	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 20.6s
3	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 26.0s
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 27.9s
5	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 30.4s
6	GROSJEAN	Lotus-Renault	+ 31.4s
7	SENNA	Williams-Renault	+ 34.5s
8	MALDONADO	Williams-Renault	+ 35.6s
9	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 37.2s
10	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 38.7s
11	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 41.0s
12	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 42.2s
13	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 42.7s
14	Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	+ 50.5s
15	HULKENBERG	Force India-Mercedes	+ 51.2s
16	VERGNE	STR-Ferrari	+ 51.7s
17	RICCIARDO	STR-Ferrari	+ 63.1s
18	PETROV	Caterham-Renault	+ 1 lap
19	GLOCK	Marussia-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
20	PIC	Marussia-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
21	DE LA ROSA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
22	KARTHIKEYAN	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
23	KOVALAINEN	Caterham-Renault	+ 3 laps
24	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	+ 44 laps, wheel
Fastest Lap	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	1m39.960s

Note – Hamilton qualified second, but dropped five grid places as penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. Vergne qualified 18th, but started from pit line following pre-race car changes.

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	45 Points
2	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	43 Points
3	ALONSO	Ferrari	37 Points
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	36 Points
5	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	28 Points
6	ROSBERG	Mercedes	25 Points
7	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	22 Points
8	Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	16 Points
9	SENNA	Williams-Renault	14 Points
10	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	9 Points
11	GROSJEAN	Lotus-Renault	8 Points
12	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	7 Points
13	VERGNE	STR-Ferrari	4 Points
14	MALDONADO	Williams-Renault	4 Points
15	RICCIARDO	STR-Ferrari	2 Points
16	HULKENBERG	Force India-Mercedes	2 Points
17	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	McLAREN-MERCEDES	88 Points
2	RBR-RENAULT	64 Points
3	FERRARI	37 Points
4	SAUBER-FERRARI	31 Points
5	MERCEDES	26 Points
6	LOTUS-RENAULT	24 Points
7	WILLIAMS-RENAULT	18 Points
8	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	9 Points
9	STR-FERRARI	6 Points

While it may be true that the Brit did have an outstanding race and the car seems strong, we haven’t even dropped a flag in Europe and it’s way too early for anyone to make Jeremy Clarkson like claims (or babbles, depending on your point of view). What was obvious is that 2011 is turning out to be a wee bit closer in competitiveness than RedBull was hoping for. Sebastian Vettel wasn’t able to add to his win streak and had to settle for second after trying to fend off the silver arrow. Mark Webber rounded out the podium, but the real story there was his drive from 18th after a flubbed qualifying round.

Jenson Button was the best of the rest, but only 10 seconds back at the end, putting numbers up for McLaren that should help out their constructors championship hopes, but with both Red Bulls on the podium, the Woking based team needs to be perfect if they expect to be on top come the end of the season. Nico Rosberg wasn’t that far behind Button in fifth place, but he finished in front of Schumacher, (ja ja, weider) adding further embarrassment to the elder driver only won here in 2006 and finished in eighth this weekend. Let’s just hope for his own records that he’s not shooting for any of those entries in the books that have Louis Chiron’s name on them.

The Ferraris finished in sixth and seventh with Massa ahead of Alonso and the Italian press is up in arms because the season is likely going to be a write off. Montezemolo went on the defensive making claims that the team will start working harder in a shorter timeframe. It wouldn’t look good if the highlights in the yearbook for 2011 show even more coverage on the FF that has received at best a cool response from most owners. It’s not too late to recover, but the Scuderia has dug a pretty deep hole for themselves.

Vitaly Petrov drove his Renault to ninth place, but was more or less a back marker more than half a lap back. Kobayashi-san drove the Sauber to tenth place to round out the points paying positions.

I must make an apology to fans of this column for missing the Malaysian GP (although I’m sure some prefer Pete’s less colorful commentary), but I was in Augusta for the final round of the Masters instead of watching the race. Besides watching Rory McIlroy do is impersonation of my normal golfing strategy of completely falling apart on the back nine, there were two things that really stuck out about how that event is different than F1. First, it is the classic Deep South and the people are genuinely friendly. Even the security guards wished everyone a nice day as they walked by, such a change from the goons that you see wandering around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that cause you to wonder if you are visiting an F1 race or seeing a relative on death row. The club wanted to make sure that you were having a good time and it seemed real. The second point was that there wasn’t this ridiculous markup on either the food or the souvenirs that you get at an F1 race. Pimento cheese sandwiches were $1.50. Beer was $3.00 ($3.75 if you wanted an import). F1 still has a lot to learn on keeping the fans happy, and the fraying at the edges of the curtains is becoming obvious, so long as the camera men don’t keep tight shots and you actually get to see that the stands aren’t filled to capacity…

Race Results

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	1h36m58.226s
2	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 5.1s
3	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	+ 7.5s
4	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 10.0s
5	ROSBERG	Mercedes	+ 13.4s
6	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 15.8s
7	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 30.6s
8	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	+ 31.0s
9	PETROV	Renault	+ 57.4s
10	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 63.2s
11	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	+ 68.7s
12	HEIDFELD	Renault	+ 72.7s
13	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 90.1s
14	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 90.6s
15	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 1 lap
16	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Renault	+ 1 lap
17	PEREZ	Sauber-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
18	MALDONADO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 1 lap
19	TRULLI	Lotus-Renault	+ 1 lap
20	D’AMBROSIO	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
21	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
22	LIUZZI	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
23	KARTHIKEYAN	HRT-Cosworth	+ 2 laps
24	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 45 laps, wheel
Fastest Lap	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	1m38.993s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	68 Points
2	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	47 Points
3	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	38 Points
4	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	37 Points
5	ALONSO	Ferrari	26 Points
6	MASSA	Ferrari	24 Points
7	PETROV	Renault	17 Points
8	HEIDFELD	Renault	15 Points
9	ROSBERG	Mercedes	10 Points
10	KOBAYASHI	Sauber-Ferrari	7 Points
11	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes	6 Points
12	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	4 Points
13	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	2 Points
14	DI RESTA	Force India-Mercedes	2 Points

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	105 Points
2	McLAREN-MERCEDES	85 Points
3	FERRARI	50 Points
4	RENAULT	32 Points
5	MERCEDES	16 Points
6	SAUBER-FERRARI	7 Points
7	STR-FERRARI	4 Points
8	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	4 Points