F1 Madness

Tag: silver arrows

  • Bottas Stays With Mercedes for 2018

    Bottas Stays With Mercedes for 2018

    Valtteri Bottas has extended his stay at Mercedes for another year and will drive for the Silver Arrows for the 2018 season.

    Bottas has currently has a one-year deal with Mercedes till the end of this year. This new deal ensures he will remain in F1 for another season. This also ends any speculation that Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will make a surprise exit from Red Bull to Mercedes.

    Bottas has a total of 9 podium finishes for Mercedes, and two victories at Russia and Austria. He also took his first pole position of his F1 career with the Silver Arrows at Bahrain.

    “I am honored and proud to continue to work with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport in 2018 and to remain part of the Mercedes family,” said the Finn.

    “Together, we continue to grow stronger day by day, and by keeping up our hard work I believe the sky is the limit,” said Valtteri.

    “Since joining the team in January, I’ve enjoyed every day working with them. The welcome and the support from every team member and all the fans has been invaluable.

    “As a driver, I’ve been able to learn and grow massively, and we have already enjoyed some really good moments this season that I will never forget. I’ve been very impressed by the mentality, commitment and the team spirit this team holds.

    “Partnering Lewis has also been really good, and I’m enjoying the respect we have and the will to push this team forward together.

    “When the team hired me for the 2017 season, they took a leap of faith by putting their trust in my skills. This new contract for 2018 shows that I’ve earned that trust.”

    Toto Wolff: “We gave Valtteri a big challenge this year: joining the team at the eleventh hour, stepping up to the forefront of F1 and pairing with the sport’s best driver as his team-mate. With that in mind, his results have been probably even more impressive.

    “There have been ups and downs – more ups, fewer downs – and some great highlights like his two race wins in Russian and Austria. Overall, the balance of his performances and his upward trajectory made it a no-brainer for us to continue with him into 2018.

    “For our team, the bonus factors are the respect and sportsmanship that have grown between our two drivers. The chemistry and dynamic between Valtteri and Lewis work and are what we need to take the fight to our competitors.”

  • Video: Sir Stirling Moss and Lewis Hamilton Drive the Mercedes W196 R Around Monza

    Watch Sir Stirling Moss and Lewis Hamilton drive the Mercedes W196 R Silver Arrows around the old Monza Circuit

  • Nico Rosberg Signs Multi Year Extension with Mercedes

    Nico Rosberg Signs Multi Year Extension with Mercedes

    The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team announced on Wednesday 16 July that Nico Rosberg has signed a multi year extension with the Brackley based team.

    Rosberg joined Mercedes in 2010 when they made their return to F1. Since then he’s had 6 victories, 17 podium finishes and 8 pole positions with the Silver Arrows. He is currently leading the Formula 1 drivers championship.

    “I am very proud to drive the Formula 1 Silver Arrow  of the modern era,” said Rosberg. “As a German, the heritage of Mercedes Benz is very special for me, and I am proud to be able to represent the best car brand around the world.”

    “There has been big progress during the past year, building up our structure, management, and capability for the future. We have an awesome team and I am confident that we have the right people in place at every level. I’m looking forward to the next years together, when we will keep pushing to win even more races, and, hopefully, championships.”

    Head of Mercedes Benz Motorport, Toto Wolff had nothing but praise for Rosberg. “Nico had been part of the Silver Arrows project since day one and he has had a big stake in the development of the team since 2010,” he said. His speed, commitment  and focus have all helped to give clear direction and drive the team forward.”

    “With his performances in 2014, Nico has demonstrated to the outside world what we already knew in the team. This new contract brings us important stability and continuity for the future  and I am delighted to make the announcement in time for the home race of Mercedes Benz and Nico Rosberg in Hockenheim”

  • Mercedes F1: Silver Arrows in the grey

    Mercedes F1: Silver Arrows in the grey

    There’s been plenty of talk amongst Formula One fans lately about the terrible form of the Mercedes F1 team. They’re performing really well over one lap for qualifying, but when it comes to race pace they’re just falling flat on their faces. Reynard Gelderblom wrote in to share his thoughts on the problems over at the Mercedes F1 team.

    Silver Arrows in the grey

    Three consecutive pole positions, front row domination and statistics favouring the front row starters at the Circuit de Catalunya. Still, Petronas Mercedes AMG F1 fell away like the American economy on Black Thursday.

    In the Chinese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton managed to salvage a podium. Not that this is much to write home about considering he started from pole. A week later in Bahrain Nico Rosberg again had the statistics in his advantage, but yet again he could only secure ninth with Hamilton at least salvaging some honour with a fifth place. After the three week break, the F1 circus moved to the traditional gateway to the European part of the season – Barcelona.

    With all teams utilizing the opportunity to improve the cars closer to home and race at the only pre-season test venue slotted into the calendar, Mercedes was looking forward to converting pre-season pace into race winning performance. Back in February during their launch, the team promised that the 2013 season will be the start of the next phase in their evolution – the return of the championship contending Silver Arrows. To back that up, they arrived in Spain with a car that included a little bit more silver than grey. Performance, however, still proved to be a grey area that outshone that silver lining. Despite their dominant showing in qualifying, Rosberg had to settle for sixth with Hamilton finishing a lowly twelfth – managing to pass a Williams as one of his highlights of the day.

    Mercedes F1Where do the problems lie? Both Rosberg and Hamilton are more than competent drivers. For three years Rosberg has been faster than Michael Schumacher – granted this wasn’t the Schumi of old, but still. Hamilton is a former World champion with McLaren and except for choosing the wrong pit box, he’s really started to look like the driver who burst onto the scene back in 2007.

    Tyres have been a great concern for Mercedes, but this isn’t a problem that just affects them. To some degree everyone has struggled with the tyres. Sebastian Vettel may have been very critical about them after Barcelona, but then again, Vettel and Red Bull have been competitive on days when Mercedes have just faded away.

    There certainly is no shortage of funding and knowledge in this team. All this brings me to one question: Are we seeing yet another Toyota here? They used to have a bigger budget than Ferrari and certainly enough resources to build the next shuttle, yet none of that materialised into anything worth writing home about on the circuit.

    I have been looking forward to a Silver Arrows revival ever since Sauber took to Kyalami in Free practice in 1993 with the “Concept by Mercedes-Benz” writing on the side. This was echoed by the McLaren livery change in 1997.

    In 2010 I was smiling when Mercedes purchased the Brawn team. Mercedes is indeed on the platform to regain the glory years. All the components are there, they just need to present the complete package. I hope that day comes sooner, rather than later.

    Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

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