- 18 Sep 09, 14:34#154721This week's Autosport Magazine had a pretty good article about the rumoured Brawn-Mercedes takeover and the current situation between the German Manufacturer and McLaren.
It states a number of reasons as to why Mercedes have turned to Brawn.
Obviously Merc have been disappointed with McLaren's release of the MP4-12c, as it puts the Woking team into direct competition with some of the German Manufacturer's cars.
McLaren and Merc's relations are still slightly strained after Spy-Gate and Lie-gate.
Sources suggest that Merc grew frustrated that, despite its 40% shareholding in the team, it has little say in the way McLaren is run, and feels it should have more influence on deciding the driver line-up.
Mercedes were also left frustrated when McLaren chose to sell a 30% stake in the team to the Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding company rather than offer them greater equity.
Brawn on the other hand has worked hard and has convinced Mercedes that it will have a controlling shareholding in the team and will decide on livery, sponsors and have a say in the driver line-ups.
Mercedes is expected to take a 75% share in Brawn in a phased plan over the next 3 years.
At the moment McLaren is the exclusive works team until the end of 2011, however Mercedes have apparently found a way around this by having the Brawn buy-in funded, in the short term, by Abu Dhabi investor Aabar - which already owns a shareholding in Daimler.
So then Mercedes-Benz will simply take direct control of these shares from 2012 onwards.
McLaren appear to be fighting back, trying to flex its muscles over the proposed Red Bull-Mercedes customer engine supply.
The Red Bull deal is seen as key to Mercedes who want to "cash-in" on the German market with Sebastian Vettel being seen as key to that.
So in short, let's see how this pans out. Expect more problems and friction as the months pass.
Forumula One: The World's Greatest Sport
- By darwin dali