MOTORSPORT: One big car maker 100% for F1

As Melbourne gets into Formula One gear, Mercedes is the one big car manufacturer that still rates the sport value for money after others have walked away

Mercedes sees benefits in GP racing others didn't
A new Formula One season is starting in Melbourne with only one mass production road car manufacturer, Mercedes, totally committed to the sport.

Renault is still in F1 but has scaled back its involvement, taking in Luxembourg investment company Genii Capital as a major partner last year and now forging a "strategic alliance" with Proton-owned Group Lotus

F1 has lost Mercedes' main rival, BMW, and Japanese manufacturers Honda and Toyota in recent times -- and Ford (via Jaguar) several years ago.

Ferrari is F1's constant, but it is different -- a specialist sports car manufacturer that has always lived for racing.

So why is it that, of the mass car makers, Mercedes is so committed to F1 when others have walked away after having spent hundreds of millions of dollars -- in the case of Toyota billions?

Mercedes has been in -- or more correctly back in -- F1 since the mid-1980s, initially supplying engines to Sauber and then McLaren, in which it also became a large shareholder.

But McLaren's determination to build its own MP4-12C sports car was at odds with Mercedes, so the manufacturer split -- although it continues to supply McLaren with F1 engines -- and now has its own fully-fledged factory team.

MercedesGP is the outfit that began life as British American Racing, became wholly-owned by Honda, then in 2009 emerged as BrawnGP -- and, with a Mercedes engine, won a surprise world championship in its only year of existence.

As well as buying out Brawn the German manufacturer brought out of a three-year retirement seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, partnering the talented young Nico Rosberg.

The first year's results were modest -- three podiums for Rosberg but none for Schumacher.

At a Mercedes pre-season function in Melbourne this correspondent grabbed a few minutes with its long-time motorsport chief Norbert Haug to talk about the company's commitment to F1.

The gist of what Haug had to say was that racing is part of Mercedes' DNA and that, with its prestigious product range and technology, it was important for the company to be seen at the forefront -- as a world leader.

He was not interested in talking about other manufacturers departing F1 or whether it would be better to have more involved again.

There was great pride at Mercedes' record of 72 wins from 241 GPs, the value it derived from F1 and how it had become even better value for money as costs had come down 65 per cent between 2005 and 2010 -- largely driven by Federation Internationale de Automobile (FIA) initiatives and the global financial crisis.

Despite the status of the brand, Haug reckoned other manufacturers had spent as much in 10 years as Mercedes in 20; that Mercedes was very efficient in how it participated.

The great irony is that the departed manufacturers spent more, had little or no success, and not are deriving any benefit from the cheaper costs now.

The timing of the Mercedes purchase of BrawnGP, coinciding with the split from McLaren, was "a fantastic opportunity" that was within the company's budget.

This correspondent's observation was that, over time, teams that have made a chassis and had an engine supplied by a manufacturer -- like Lotus, Tyrrell, Williams, McLaren and now Red Bull -- had proven far more successful than wholly-manufacturer-owned teams, other than Ferrari -- which is a different and special exception.

Haug's point was that this Mercedes team operates quite independently from the car company -- with its base in Britain, Ross Brawn as team principal and Nick Fry as managing director, and Mercedes having its engine facility and a small operation, essentially Haug and a marketing team, at its Stuttgart headquarters dedicated to the F1 program.

"We are a small, young team," Haug said.

He was wary of making predictions for this season, other than to say "we will know a lot more after Sunday".

At the same function Schumacher made no secret that he expects improvement from the team this season. Indeed he talks of "a big step".

He can foresee podiums, perhaps a race win -- "It is a performance-oriented car. It's up to us to prove it" -- but not, we sense, a championship just yet. And time is running out for him.

At 42 Schumacher still knows how to talk the talk of F1, but listeners wonder whether it is as authoritative as in his heyday at Ferrari.

In those days when Schumacher predicted something it invariably happened. Now we contemplate, when he talks of Mercedes achieving greater success as a factory team, it will be teammate Rosberg reaping the spoils rather than the great man.

Someone else at the function asked Schumacher whether he still had the intensity of those golden days at Ferrari.

"Be sure of that," he insisted.

In a question to Schumacher I observed that the peak of his career at Ferrari had been virtually perfection, so where -- in percentage terms -- was this Mercedes team in getting to that point? Was it at 99 per cent, perhaps 95 per cent?

"Life is chapters. This is my second chapter," Schumacher said. "Percentages (in this context) don't matter. It will come with time."

Twenty years after his F1 debut, Schumi is displaying great patience. But he was adamant.

To another questioner he replied: "It will work out." And he repeated, even more forcefully: "IT WILL WORK OUT."

His pronouncements just aren't as convincing as they used to be, yet perhaps we should not underestimate him, even at 42.

While some doubt he will get to the third year of his contract if this season's results are little better than last year, an obviously more optimistic observer inquired whether there might be a third chapter ahead for him -- an extension of the contract beyond next year.

"We will think about it," Schumacher said.

A perfect 10 for Webber on Sunday?
For this weekend, Schumacher nominated Red Bull as the team to beat rather than his old Ferrari.

He didn't talk of the drivers individually, but Red Bull's 23-year-old world champion Sebastian Vettel must be favourite, ahead of his Australian teammate Mark Webber.

It will be Webber's 10th start in his home race and what a delight it would be for him to win. Yet his record at Albert Park is a sorry sight.

There was that magical fifth place on debut with Minardi in 2002 and another fifth with Williams in 2005, but there have been four retirements, a ninth (last year), a 12th and a 13th.

Jenson Button has won in Melbourne the past two years -- firstly with Brawn, then McLaren -- and could become the first driver since Schumacher to complete a hat-trick in Oz.

Looking over the history of this race, we note that Rubens Barrichello has been second four times and third another.

If the Williams is truly competitive and the elements conspire, might the man who has driven more GPs than any other make it to the top step of the podium on Sunday?

Nick Heidfeld, drafted into the Renault team in place of the injured Robert Kubica, will be starting his 173rd GP.

Many drivers never get to win in F1. Webber holds the record of driving the most GPs before a victory (131). This correspondent would not be disappointed to see Heidfeld take that record on Sunday. He's not the greatest personality in the sport but he has been an excellent, and extraordinarily consistent, competitor.

The newcomers this season are Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado with Williams (at the expense of the unlucky Nico Hulkenberg), Mexican Sergio Perez at Sauber, Belgian Jerome d'Ambrosio with Virgin and Brit Paul De Resta with Force India.

In Friday's first F1 practice sessions 21-year-old Aussie Daniel Ricciardo will drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the team that was previously Minardi.

While Ricciardo has topped post-season tests for drivers on the cusp of F1 the past two years, this will be his debut at a GP.

At the 2005 Sandown 500, Ricciardo -- a West Australian karting champion -- made his only previous car racing start in Victoria.

In Formula Ford that weekend -- admittedly in an old car -- he was third last in practice, qualified way down in the field, and in three races had one non-finish and a best placing of 16th.

There was no hint that he would get to be an F1 driver (although not yet racer), nor that he would win 24 races in four years in Europe (in Formula Renault, Formula Three and World Series by Renault) on the way there.

Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari will sit out this first Friday F1 session while Ricciardo takes the wheel, and at the next GP in Malaysia it will be Toro Rosso's Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi who will make way for him in Friday practice.

Red Bull motorsport chief Dr Helmut Marko has already said he wants Ricciardo in F1 next season, so that puts the heat on Buemi and Alguersuari to perform -- and virtually assures Australia of a successor to Webber.

It could mean that, this time next year, there will be two Australians on the grid at the Australian GP.

A reminder of the major changes this season -- Pirelli tyres instead of Bridgestones, with worries about how quickly they degrade; Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), used in 2009, return and will give drivers the chance to use extra power briefly for overtaking; and drivers can now adjust the rear wings from the cockpit.

2011 Formula One line-up
Red Bull-Renault -- Sebastian Vettel (Germany); Mark Webber (Australia)
Ferrari -- Fernando Alonso (Spain); Felipe Massa (Brazil)
McLaren-Mercedes -- Lewis Hamilton (Britain); Jenson Button (Britain)
Mercedes -- Nico Rosberg (Germany) Michael Schumacher (Germany)
Renault -- Nick Heidfeld (Germany); Vitaly Petrov (Russia)
Williams-Cosworth -- Rubens Barrichello (Brazil); Pastor Maldonado (Venezuala)
Force India-Mercedes -- Adrian Sutil (Germany); Paul Di Resta (Britain)
Sauber-Ferrari -- Kamui Kobayashi (Japan); Sergio Perez (Mexico)
Toro Rosso-Ferrari -- Jaime Alguersuari (Spain); Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland)
Lotus-Cosworth -- Jarno Trulli (Italy); Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)
Hispania-Cosworth -- Narain Karthikeyan (India); Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy)
Virgin-Cosworth -- Timo Glock (Germany); Jerome d'Ambrosio (Belgium)

Other plusses and minuses at Albert Park
The strained relations between Australian GP organisers and Australia's two F1 world champions the past couple of years have been somewhat repaired and Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones will do a parade lap before Sunday's twilight GP.

There is loose talk in the air about New York making a play for a GP in place of Melbourne, but F1 has never taken off in the US, there is no American driver in prospect for GP racing, and already there is a deal for a US GP in Austin, Texas -- and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says one race is enough in any country.

There also is a lot of hot air about a move from the public roads of Albert Park to a permanent circuit at Lindsay Fox's Avalon Airport near Geelong.

But it isn't all F1 this weekend. V8 Supercars have a bigger role at the GP, with a new trackside pit set-up next to the F1 pits and three races for a total of 400km and $500,000 prizemoney (seemingly not out of the coffers of any sponsor, arousing suspicions it is ultimately another hit on Victorian taxpayers).

Jason Richards, the popular New Zealander battling cancer who raced in the V8 Supercar development series -- and won -- in Adelaide last weekend, as well as driving a Ferrari in the GT category, returns to Brad Jones Racing in place of Jason Bargwanna for the three V8 Supercar races at Albert Park.

Oveseas the IndyCar series gets underway in Florida, with Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe driving again for Team Penske, while the third round of the World Rally Championship is in Portugal

VW is now not expected to make any announcement in Portugal about a future WRC program on top of its Dakar Rally activity.

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