Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team

Norbert Haug, Vice President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said: “Our new team name fuses the proud traditions of AMG and the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows at the pinnacle of motorsport. These three letters are synonymous with high technology, sporting performance and excitement and this step is a further strong sign of the strategic commitment Mercedes-Benz has made to Formula One. 16 of the 24 drivers on the grid at the season’s final Grand Prix in Brazil have, or have had, a connection to Mercedes-Benz. In addition to the role of a works team, our commitment to Formula One comprises the customer engine programme and supply of the official Safety and Medical Cars.”

The Mercedes-Benz Formula One powertrain facility at Brixworth, UK has worked closely with AMG for a number of years. This wholly owned Daimler subsidiary will now be renamed ‘Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains’. The car with which the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team will compete in the 2012 season is currently under development at the team’s headquarters in Brackley, UK. Codenamed F1 W03, it is planned for the car to make its official track debut at the second winter test of 2012, on 21 February at Barcelona.

Mercedes AMG has already started working with Mercedes F1 engine specialists on the SLS AMG E-Cell project, whose electric powertrain will be developed as a joint venture.


Ola Källenius, Chairman of Mercedes-AMG GmbH , commented: “The Mercedes AMG brand promises ‘Driving Performance’ – and what better embodies this philosophy than the intense competitive arena of Formula One? It is an historic first for the AMG name to be associated to the works Silver Arrows team, and offers fantastic opportunities: first, to further build the sporting identity of the Mercedes AMG brand through one of the world’s most-watched and most successful sports; second, to explore and deliver technology transfer between road and track. This is already being practised with the SLS AMG E-Cell project, whose electric powertrain will be developed as a joint venture between Mercedes AMG and our F1 engine specialists in Brixworth.”
Team Principal Ross Brawn concluded: “We are very proud to reveal our new team name today. It adds another strong performance element to our team’s identity and, by virtue of being shared between Brackley and Brixworth, will forge even stronger links within our team. At the factory, we have been focused for some time on the challenge of 2012, and our very clear ambition to move forward up the grid next year. As always, the winter development and manufacturing processes are a trade-off between time for finding performance in the factory, and time for delivering that performance during pre-season testing. We believe that the decision to run the car at the second winter test is the optimum compromise for our design and development programme with F1 W03.”

We wonder how much difference this association will make technologically. As a marketing ploy, this definitely should work to the favour of both parties.

As much as we love Schumacher, Riot Engine thinks Shumi should let Paul Di Resta take his place in the new “MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team” with Nico Rosberg in the other car. Why? Read more about our perspective here.

Mercedes GP Petronas whose website was www.mercedes-gp.com now redirects to www.mercedes-amg-f1.com

Audi has clocked an impressive 83 percent growth rate YTD

  • Records outstanding sale of 5117 cars (January – November 2011)
  • Vehicle sales in November 2011: 425 cars
  • “We attribute this growth to our continued focus on introducing an energetic product line, qualitative network growth and strong brand pull. We are also looking forward to the Auto Expo, where we will launch some additional new exciting models to maintain the Audi momentum- Michael Perschke, Head, Audi India.  Audi, continued its excellent performance in India this year with a sale of 5117 cars from January – November 2011, thus, surpassing its annual sales target for the year in first eleven months – an impressive growth of 83 percent (January – November 2010: 2791 cars). The luxury car maker recorded sales of 425 cars in November 2011, a 66 percent growth over the same period last year (November 2010: 256 cars).

“Given our outstanding performance in the first eleven months of the year, we are well poised to finish the year strongly by exceeding our expectations yet again.  We attribute this growth to our continued focus on introducing an energetic product line, qualitative network growth and strong brand pull. While our strengthened ‘A’ range of limousines are delighting customers with their progressive design, sportiness and dynamic performance, we have established market leadership with our Q5 and Q7 in the luxury SUV segment and the iconic R8 in the super sports car segment. I am confident that our impressive sales performance YTD coupled with our dynamic product line and fast expanding dealer network will ensure that Audi maintains its position as the fastest growing luxury car brand in India”, said Michael Perschke, Head, Audi India.

 

Audi India recently inaugurated a new showroom in Indore, Madhya Pradesh and plans to expand its network to 23 dealerships by 2012 from the existing 15 centres. Earlier this year the luxury carmaker opened new showrooms in Delhi, Chennai, Ludhiana and Surat. Last year, the company inaugurated showrooms in Mumbai West, Kolkata, Jaipur and Bengaluru. On the product front, Audi India has launched a slew of class-defining models this year, beginning with the Audi A8 L, the super sports cars, Audi R8 V10 and Audi R8 Spyder, the design marvel, Audi A7 Sportback, the high performance Coupé, Audi RS5 and the business luxury limousine, Audi A6.

Globally, Audi delivered more than 1,081,700 cars to customers worldwide from January to October 2011, an increase of 18 percent over the same period in 2010. Audi is No.1 in Europe and China.  In 2011, Audi continues to be the fastest growing luxury car brand in the U.S and in India. While China has overtaken Germany as the single biggest market for AUDI, the brand is in the process of deploying some proven strategies from China to the Indian market, on the product, network growth and brand building front.

The Audi model range in India includes Audi A4, Audi A6, Audi A7 Sportback, Audi A8L, Audi Q5, Audi Q7, Audi RS5 Coupé, the super sports car Audi R8 and the Audi R8 Spyder available across the country: in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Mumbai West, Pune and Surat. Further developments include Coimbatore, Delhi West, Lucknow and Mumbai South.

It is well known that the Formula1 Teams Association which is a body that came into being in order to protect the interests of the teams has always had serious fissures.  While on the outside it looked as if there is some kind of cohesion in the organisation, the bickering inside has always threatened to dismantle the association.  Now that is exactly what has happened with Ferrari and Red Bull Racing quitting the association.  The disagreement is over the cap on spending.  Ferrari has always been at logger heads with the British teams in Formula1.  Team HRT never joined the FOTA and now with the double whammy of two teams quitting the number of teams in the FOTA has come down to nine.

For reasons known only to Timo Glock the Marussia F1 driver believes that he is as good as fellow German driver Sebastian Vettel.  Needless to say the claim is hilarious and let us explain why we say that.  Vettel and Glock have never been in one team or shared equipment so comparisons are impossible to make.  This however does not mean that Glock cannot be as good as Vettel, what it means is that unless they are both sitting in the same car, comparisons are bound to be meaningless.  We are wondering what it is that Glock is trying to convey with this statement of his.  Glock was in F1 before losing his drive and then went on to participate in the GP2 class where he did become champion.  Post that he was given a drive at Toyota where he said his aim was to win the world championship in the year 2010.  Unfortunately Toyota along with BMW withdrew at the end of 2009 leaving Glock to drive the Virgin Racing car (Marussia from next year on) and the last two seasons Glock has been at the rear end of the field.  From there he made this statement that if he is given the same equipment as Vettel, he would be as good.  We suspect Glock wants to replace Mark Webber in 2013.  Webber, unless he wins the Championship in 2012, is likely to be out of Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2012 season.  But why should he be replaced by Glock when there are so many youngsters in the Red Bull roster? If that is the reason we say high hopes Timo.

Romain Grosjean, who has driven for Renault F1 in the past and came out looking terrible next to Fernando Alonso when the latter was also contracted to Renault, believes that the time is ripe for him to re-enter Formula1 as a racer and wants the seat in the Lotus Renault team for next year, alongside Kimi Raikonnen.  Romain Grosjean is one of the many drivers who are hoping that Vitaly Petrov will be bought out of his contract by Lotus to accommodate another driver.  Adrian Sutil is also said to be in the frame for that seat.  Eric Boullier is being coy about the team’s thoughts on who will partner Raikonnen.

The iconic Italian motorcycle brand, MV Augusta seems to have decided that the Indian market is important and therefore will be selling its range of motorcycles which will be brought in as CBUs.  MV Augusta was revived by the late great Claudio Castiglioni and had sold the brand to Harley Davidson who pumped money into new model development but ultimately sold the brand and the company back to Castiglioni for a nominal price thanks to the recession that has hit the US economy.  MV Augusta is best known for its F4 1000 sports bike and the naked and aggressive Brutale range of motorcycles.  MV Augusta’s motorcycles are a wonderful combination of design and engineering and as it is cost a bomb.  As CBUs they are likely to be priced in the stratosphere along with fellow Italian company Ducati.  This means that for aam janta like you and me the entry of MV Augusta means nothing.  Considering the fact that it is likely to have only one or two dealerships even leching at the bike in showrooms is out of the question.

The month of November, 2011 has seen Honda 2 wheelers’ sales being higher than the that of TVS Motor.  Honda sold nearly 1,90,000 whereas TVS sold near 1, 56, 000 thousand.  This means that for the month of November Honda is number three in the hustings behind Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto.  This could be due to the fact that Honda’s second plant in Rajasthan is functional.  It is well known that all Honda 2 wheelers have waiting periods ranging from a couple of months to nearly a year.  Honda’s upward mobility in the Indian market is likely to get a further boost when its third plant at Narasapura near Bengaluru becomes operational.  However, one will have to wait for a while and watch the performance of Honda and TVS for a few months to know if Honda has outsold TVS temporarily or has it actually gotten past the Indian major to claim the third position in the market.

Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG and Ducati Streetfighter 848 : Bologna

Mercedes-AMG and Ducati signed at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November 2010, a cooperation agreement that included various marketing activities as well as joint appearances at shows and customer events.

Streetfighter Yellow Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG : Side ViewStreetfighter Yellow Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG and Ducati Streetfighter 848

The first joint presentation was that of the CLS 63 AMG and the Ducati Diavel AMG Special Edition at Frankfurt Motor Show 2011. AMG has been the “Official Car Partner” of the Ducati MotoGP team since the start of the 2011 MotoGP season. The AMG logo appears not only on the motorcycles and racing overalls of Ducati works drivers Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi, but also on the official teamwear and in the Ducati Lounge. Furthermore, as an additional outcome of the cooperation agreement, the Ducati fleet of vehicles is being gradually switched over to Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Inspired by the Ducati Streetfighter 848, the “streetfighter yellow” colour of the SLK 55 AMG is stunning to look at. Mercedes-AMG says if there is sufficient demand, the special colour variant could also be made available as an individual optional extra from the AMG Performance Studio.

Streetfighter Yellow Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG : InteriorStreetfighter Yellow Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG : Interior

The scheme also seeps into the interiors with contrasting yellow stitching that creates a striking effect against the black nappa leather appointments, and is found on the door centre panels, beltlines, armrests, leather-covered roll-over bars, dashboard, the shift lever gaiter and also the AMG Performance steering wheel. Yellow illuminated AMG door sill panels featuring LED technology round off the striking effect of the interior.

We’ll take one each, thank you.

Streetfighter Yellow Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG and Ducati Streetfighter 848

Streetfighter Yellow Mercedes-Benz SLK 55 AMG and Ducati Streetfighter 848

Prestigious red dot design award for Unimog study (Left to Right) Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, Founder and President Red Dot Design Award; Kai Sieber, Director Design Vans & Trucks, Mercedes-Benz; Ken Koo, President Red Dot Singapore

Prestigious red dot design award for Unimog study (Left to Right) Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, Founder and President Red Dot Design Award; Kai Sieber, Director Design Vans & Trucks, Mercedes-Benz; Ken Koo, President Red Dot Singapore

The the prestigious “red dot award design concept” went to the Unimog design concept. On 25 November, Kai Sieber, Head of Design Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles, accepted the award in Singapore. Designers Gordon Wagener and Bertrand Janssen have also worked on the concept.

red dot, is a design institute based in Germany with ‘red dot design museums’ in Germany and Singapore. Every year the institute awards design talent. As a top professional design competition, this award enjoys a high international reputation. Companies, institutions, research centres and design studios all take part. The winners in the different categories are selected from a total of over 3,000 project submissions

We’ve featured the Mercedes-Benz Design Concept in a previous design feature here.

Mercedes-Benz Concept Design 60 Years UnimogMercedes-Benz Concept Design 60 Years Unimog

The design concept though is not intended as the prototype for a future Unimog generation, although certain details could certainly be incorporated in future. The design study continues the development history of the Unimog, displaying a highly innovative character and an exceptional degree of flexibility, just like the series production Unimog in its many applications around the world.

2012 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter with ADAPTIVE ESP 9i

You’ve probably met the Sprinter’s ancestor, the Tempo Traveller, sold globally by Mercedes-Benz as the T1 van until it was replaced by the Sprinter in 1995. The Sprinter underwent a major overhaul in 2006 and continues to be sold today. The second generation Sprinter also shares its platform and body shell with the Volkswagen LT.

Mercedes-Benz has recently announced the ADAPTIVE ESP 9i for the Sprinter which will replaced the ADAPTIVE ESP 8.1 in January 2012. Just like the ADAPTIVE ESP 8.1 safety system, ESP 9i takes the vehicle load into account. Depending on the weight and the position of the vehicle’s centre of gravity, the ESP sensors determine the vehicle load and ensure that ESP 9i can stabilise the vehicle with individually modulated intervention action, at any time.

This new ESP system will also intervene selectively if a trailer begins to sway, thus helping drivers to stabilise their vehicle and trailer combination.

Brake Disc Wipe

One of the prominent safety features of ESP 9i is the Brake Disc Wipe. In wet weather, light braking pressure is applied to the wheel brake at regular intervals to wipe the film of water off the brake disc. If emergency braking occurs, full braking power is immediately available. This shortens the braking distance and gives the driver the few metres that could prevent a mishap.

Electronic Brake Prefill

When the accelerator pedal is released suddenly, the brake pads will be gently applied automatically, removing the air gap between brake pad and disc. If the driver attempts an emergency stop, the surfaces of the pads and discs will already be in contact, and gives the driver the extra few seconds. This functionality also reduces stopping distance which, depending on the circumstances, will help avoid an accident.

The new ESP 9i comes at no extra cost. The Sprinter is a favourite world over, and India is no stranger to the Sprinter. The Sprinter has been used by the Leela Group of Hotels in Mumbai and Bangalore to transport their guests in style and comfort, and also has been used as an ambulance by the Apollo group of hospitals.

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter used by Leela Group in India

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter used by Leela Group in IndiaMercedes-Benz Sprinter used by Apollo Hospitals in India

Photo Courtesy: Team-Bhp