Mercedes Benz have today bought a 75% stake in the Brawn GP team.
On the official Brawn GP website they explained the details of the transaction:
Daimler AG together with Aabar Investments PJSC will take over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team, with Daimler taking 45.1 per cent and Aabar 30 per cent. The rest of the 24.9 per cent will remain with the current stakeholders. With 9.1 per cent, Aabar is the biggest single shareholder of Daimler AG. This transaction is subject to the approval of the EU and the Swiss cartel authorities.
Despite head of Mercedes motorsport and the McLaren team boss saying a while ago that McLaren and Mercedes were to remain partners in the sport for the forseeable future, it seems that this move from Mercedes will change the Mercedes and McLaren partnership quite significantly, with the McLaren group planning to buy back the 40% the Daimler group currently hold by 2011, although Mercedes could well supply engines to McLaren up to 2015.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars said on the matter:
“I want to thank McLaren for a successful collaboration over the last decade and a half. For the benefit of both Mercedes and McLaren, we will continue our partnership cooperation in future. We will be rivals on-track but, off-track, we will cooperate with McLaren and the other teams in order to create the best possible product for spectators worldwide.”
And Norbert Haug head of Mercedes motorsport said:
“We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren; in that time, we won four world-championship titles and finished ten times as runner-up in the drivers’ and constructors’ rankings. Since the first victory in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, the modern Silver Arrows have achieved a total of 60 victories in 223 races to ensure that our brand symbol, the star, stands for the greatest successes in Formula 1. We thank our partner and will continue to work with McLaren based on an excellent partnership.”
It is our target to develop a model for our Formula 1 activities which will initially be run with significantly reduced budgets by Mercedes-Benz and which, in the foreseeable future, will be self-financing. Furthermore, we naturally want to inspire our faithful spectators and TV viewers worldwide and maximize media coverage for our brand. With Formula 1, Mercedes-Benz can continue to clearly demonstrate its willingness to compete and win on the most important motor sports competition stage in the world.”
Boss of Brawn GP Ross Brawn said:
“Both I and my fellow Directors at Brawn GP are incredibly proud of our staff, drivers and everyone associated with our team and thank them for their commitment, outstanding teamwork and their focus on achieving results in sometimes difficult circumstances. The senior management group will remain in place to lead our team and on behalf of everyone at Brawn GP, we are honoured to be representing such a prestigious brand as Mercedes-Benz in Formula One next year and will be working together to do our best to reward their faith in our team.”
How will this change the drivers market?
Many are speculating that Mercedes will want two German drivers on their team, meaning Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld are likely candidates for the drive with the new team.
This would likely mean that Heikki Kovalainen will leave McLaren, paving the way for Jenson Button to make up an all British, all world championship winning team.
Kimi Raikkonen has previously said that his only option to stay in F1 is with McLaren, but if they opt to go with Button, it will leave Raikkonen without a team, so we could quite possibly see the 2007 world champion without a drive in 2010.
Jack Sargeant is the editor-in-chief and designer of An F1 Blog. Follow him on 
