Feature: A Closer Look at the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team

Sunday race action - Nico Rosberg of Mercedes AMG Petronas at the 2012 European GP. Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.The following is a feature by Austinite Mike Boone. Mike is an avid F1 fan and he prepared this information to educate guests at tonight's networking event with EuroCircle at Javelina. We think it will be a great primer for new F1 fans, so we'll have copies to distribute at the event.

// What do you need to know about the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team? Here are some helpful facts:

The first Mercedes involvement in Formula One came four years after the first race in 1954. Mercedes has also served as an engine provider to other teams with their engines winning two constructors and four driver’s championships. The current team has been competing since 2010 after the purchase of Brawn GP.  As a constructor Mercedes have won two drivers championships and ten races in Formula One.

Mercedes' drivers for 2012 are Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, although it is now known that Schumacher is retiring at the end of 2012 while Lewis Hamilton, currently at McLaren Mercedes is joining Rosberg at Mercedes AMG Petronas.  Also, Mercedes AMG currently supply McLaren and Force India with engines.

The name for the Mercedes constructor in was changed for 2012, the team removed the GP from their name and added AMG, the high performance division of Mercedes.

At the China race this year Nico Rosberg won first pole position for Mercedes since Fangio last did it in 1955.  Rosberg went on to win the Chinese Grand Prix this race which was the first win in China, in 57 years.

// About the Team

Full name: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team (2012 – )

Base: Brackley, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom

Team Principal: Ross Brawn

CEO: Nick Fry

Technical Director: Bob Bell

Website: www.Mercedes-AMG-F1.com

Previous name: Brawn GP Formula One Team

// 2012 Formula 1 Season

Drivers: #7 Michael Schumacher and #8 Nico Rosberg

Test Driver: Sam Bird

Chassis: Mercedes F1 W03

Engine: Mercedes-Benz

Tires: Pirelli

// F1 World Championship Career

Debut: 1954 French Grand Prix

Latest Race: 2012 European Grand Prix (photo above was taken there)

Races completed: 57

Constructor's Championships: 0

Drivers' Championships: 1954 and 1955

Race Victories: 10

Pole Positions: 9

Fastest Laps: 9

The information above was compiled from the Mercedes AMG Petronas website and Wikipedia.

The Flying Lap - Peter Windsor Discusses F1 on Web TV

One of the amazing outcomes of launching this site has been the incredible converstations we have started with what we once considered "out of reach" F1 insiders. We never thought we would be in the same room as Red McCombs, shake hands with Susan Combs, or chat up a new friend named Tavo. We never thought our passion for Formula One racing would connect us with other fans in Atlanta, Canada, South America, London or Australia. We underestimated the number of F1 and motor enthusiasts in the Austin area alone! However, once we started talking about our exponential enthusiasm for F1 coming to Austin, we realized people were listening, and we started to listen back.

During the summer we read about a weekly chat on Twitter titled #F1Chat.  Hosted by a Formula One racing enthusiast and marketing maven, Lois Martin, #F1Chat was interesting to us because it encompassed the short 140-character appeal of Twitter but allowed users to stay on guided topic by using the keyword (or "hashtag" as they're called on Twitter) #F1chat.  I have really enjoyed sharing Lois's F1 enthusiasm, despite being located across the country, and during one of the chats, I was surprised to "see" Peter Windsor pop in and engage in the discussion.  Just a few months ago Lois's popular weekly chat became affiliated with Formula1Blog.com, an amazing online resource with incredible in-depth analysis and discussions of all things Formula 1, and she joined the group as Contributing Editor and continues to host #F1Chat.  Which brings us full circle, because...

A great new online show debuted last week called "The Flying Lap With Peter Windsor."  It is a live online Formula One Q & A show on Smibs.tv hosted by Peter Windsor and starring some incredible guests.  Here's the trailer:

This week's show will feature Bob Bell, one of the most successful F1 engineers of the past 30 years, and Todd McCandless, creator of one of the most prolifically-read formula one blogs on the internet, Formula1blog.com.

The show airs live at 12 noon CST on Wednesday, however there is also a special feature this Thursday.  Because we don't want you to miss a beat (and we think helping our friends with some good 'ol word of mouth is cool), check out any or all of the following links:

Smibs.TV
The Flying Lap Website
The Flying Lap TV Channel

The Flying Lap on iTunes

The Flying Lap on Facebook

The Flying Lap on Twitter

Peter Windsor's Website - The Race Driver

Peter on Twitter

Formula 1 Blog

Formula 1 Blog on iTunes

Formula 1 Blog on Facebook

Formula 1 Blog on Twitter

#F1Chat on Twitter

Lois on Formula 1 Blog

By no means is this an all-encompassing post on all the amazing people we've met, but we wanted to share this post so you can tune in to tomorrow's show.  We'll continue to share amazing resources with you as beginner and veteran F1 fans alike! 

Have any resources we should check out? Post them in our comments.  Here is last week's The Flying Lap show which included an intriguing discussion about the Senna movie.