The incredible story of how McLaren and Mercedes split up in F1

mclaren and mercedes are back together in formula one after spending six years apart of course this partnership is nothing like the original mclaren mercedes alliance which started in 1995 and involved a works engine supplier and mercedes parent company owning 40 percent of the team today mclaren is purely an engine customer rebounding from its disastrous honda partnership and a customer renault deal that was a convenient escape route with limited potential to the disappointment of many fans the mercedes logo hasn't returned to the car but that's because that's not part of a deal that involves mclaren buying its engines at times over the 20 seasons mclaren and mercedes spent together in their first stint they were on top of the world so how did it all unravel were it not for a few key moments from 2007 to 2009 there's every chance mclaren mercedes would still be a works partnership today and the mercedes f1 team that we now know would never have come into existence we're not going to spend this section explaining the full story behind mclaren's 100 million dollar fine for possessing confidential information about ferrari's car back in 2007 although if you want us to look at that in depth in the future let us know in the comments but we are going to look at the background to this saga and the fallout from it the relationship between mclaren boss ron dennis and fia president max mosley was always uneasy their personalities clashed and in their respective roles they managed to repeatedly make each other's lives difficult when it was discovered that disgruntled ferrari chief mechanic nigel stepney had handed over an incredible amount of detail to mclaren designer mike coughlin mosley stepped in as well as the massive fine mclaren was stripped of its constructors championship points costing it a title it would have won that year drivers lewis hamilton and fernando alonso were allowed to keep their points thanks to some persuasion from bernie ecclestone to keep that year's mega championship battle alive the implication behind the punishment was that mclaren could consider itself lucky not to be thrown out of the championship entirely and that threat effectively hung over the team afterwards in case of any further discretions because of its 40 shareholding in the team daimler was liable for 40 of the 100 million fine this didn't sit well given it knew nothing about the events that took place and understandably had a wider reputation to be mindful of that became part of ongoing tension between the two sides that split widened with other incidents such as mercedes motorsport boss norbert hogg wanting alonzo fired on the spot for threatening to take information to the fia during a falling out at the 2007 hungarian grand prix and even more so when mclaren entered the supercar market as a direct competitor to its part owner with the mclaren mp4 12c daimler board members were also unhappy at paying the retainers of mclaren's f1 drivers without having any say in who those drivers would be daimler and dennis at least shared a common foe in mosley the faa president was in constant battle against the manufacturers that dominated f1 during the noughties mosley was trying to reduce the power of the manufacturers by creating rules that favored independent teams while the car makers were trying to do the opposite they wanted more money and more control and made multiple threats to break away and form their own championship the breakaway threat went through various guises until it led to the creation of the formula one teams association fota foto managed to entice the independent teams to join on the promise of more money for everyone if they were in control of revenues without the commercial rights holder taking its very chunky cut as was the case in f1 under bernie ecclestone's terms then the financial crash of 2008 hit almost overnight honda decided to pull the plug on its f1 team which was costing 300 million dollars and after a first win in 2006 had been utterly rubbish in the two years that followed ross braun and nick fry went into overdrive to save the team in the winter of 2008-09 if they pulled it off honda would supply a running budget of 100 million dollars but no engines at this point mclaren's martin whitmarsh the chairman of photo waved mclaren's veto over mercedes supplying another team dennis wasn't so keen that he was convinced by the need to keep a team on the grid to keep the photo presence strong in its conflict with mosley especially with rumors growing that toyota and bmw might not be far behind honda in walking away at the time this decision didn't seem that high risk mclaren had just won the world championship with lewis hamilton in 2008 and was at the peak of its powers brawn gp was thought to have an impressive car developed with the financial might of honda but this was a team scrambling to get onto the grid and frantically downsizing to make sure it could afford to complete the season whitmarsh didn't realise it at the time but this was the moment that would ultimately doom mclaren but even once that decision had been taken for the greater good could mclaren have prevented the split that followed probably mclaren's fate was sealed in the early months of 2009. not only did the braun bgp-001 turn out to be a fantastic chassis now benefiting from the best engine in f1 but mclaren's new car was a dog the development focus required towards the end of the 2008 title fight meant mclaren and ferrari both headed into f1's radical new rules for 2009 undercooked mclaren's car concept was flawed although it was able to salvage some respectability with a mid-season upgrade that did away with the disastrous in-wash front wing that was completely the wrong way to go mosley had an impact early in the year as well the dominant brawn featured a controversial double diffuser a trick also picked up on by williams and toyota but missed by everyone else those who didn't have it were convinced it was illegal the fia ruled it was legal a satisfying outcome for mosley in his battle with the big teams given two of the three cars featuring the design were independents dennis had already handed over the team principal role at mclaren to whitmarsh by this point but he stepped back entirely just a few weeks later when mclaren was caught up in another scandal at the australian grand prix this time it was over lying to the stewards following confusion around hamilton and jano trilli swapping places behind a safety car after the toyota had been off the road mclaren was only given a suspended ban but it was another incident that soured mercedes view of mclaren and added to its concerns it was being caught up in the personal battle between mosley and dennis in late 2009 mercedes bought braun gp and his equity in mclaren would be sold over the next two years mclaren retained a mercedes engine supply but it had gone from being a once exclusive works partner to simply a customer could that decision from mercedes have been prevented braun who ran the new silver arrows team initially believed so braun has said martin whitmarsh was instrumental in getting us the engine ron dennis has never forgiven him he feels that's the reason they lost mercedes it is but only because they did a bad job if we'd been thrashed by mclaren in 2009 mercedes wouldn't have bought us mclaren initially enjoyed the competitive edge over the first worx mercedes grand prix team since 1955 winning 18 races from 2010 to 2012 to just one for mercedes mercedes spent those years grappling with the realisation that the braun team it bought wasn't quite the ready-made title-winning machine it thought after a year of under-investment mercedes also had to accept that f1 wasn't going to fully commit to stricter cost controls that it was expecting to come in so more spending power from germany was required the tables started to turn in 2013 when mclaren outsmarted itself in the final year of the v8 regulations effectively overreaching with a radical design of a car that was often the fastest in the field in 2012 and could have won that year's championship at the same time mercedes started to get its act together and ran more regularly near the front but it had its eyes on the long game then in 2014 mercedes blitzed the new 1.6 litre turbo hybrid engine regulations mclaren had the advantage of still using the best engine but its car fell short and as a customer is never going to enjoy the same sort of chassis engine integration that mercedes could that customer status was never more evident than in pre-season when the mclaren mp429 needed an engine change the mercedes engineers effectively told the team that the change would take all day if mclaren's mechanics were in the garage while it could be done in a matter of hours if they walked out and closed the doors behind them with mosley long gone dennis was now back in control at mclaren and he felt a customer engine deal was not the level mclaren belonged at he went on the hunt for a new works partner and remarkably reeled honda back to f1 so in 2015 what used to be honda was now mercedes and what used to be mercedes works partner now had works honda engines it seemed a ridiculous conclusion to a bizarre but fascinating storyline hopefully we've done that tail justice and if you enjoyed it be sure to give this video a thumbs up then head to the comments to let us know what you think could mclaren have prevented its loss of mercedes and how would the team have performed over the last six years if it had just accepted being a mercedes customer and if you're not already subscribed to our channel hit that button so you never miss another video from the race you

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 601,999

Rating: 4.9515486 out of 5

Keywords: formula 1, f1, formula one, mercedes, mclaren, lewis hamilton, ron dennis, norbert haug, why did mclaren and mercedes split up, McLaren MP4-12C, F1 2009, F1 2008, V8 F1, F1 2014, Honda, McLaren Honda, Martin Whitmarsh, Brawn GP, FOTA, F1 breakaway, Mika Hakkinen, spygate, liegate, F1 spy scandal, ferrari, F1 lying, F1 cheating, The Race, the-race.com, Glenn Freeman, Mark Hughes

Id: Y6FLkGFMnUQ

Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Vinura]

• Mercedes wanted to buy McLaren
• Ron and Mansoor said no
• Honda left, but designed a winning car before doing so
• Brawn buys team, sticks Mercedes engine in the back
• Wins both championships without worrying about driver haircuts or mismatched factory floor tiles
• Mercedes decides to buy Brawn and return to F1 full time

The End

[u/IamMrEric]

Mercedes also wanted to buy McLaren but their offer was obviously rejected. So they went with Brawn GP.

[u/supersemar_asli]

In summary:

• Spygate put a strain on the relationship between the two, notably Norbert Haug wanted Alonso to be fired on the spot for the blackmail attempt to release McLaren internal emails to the FIA.

• McLaren entered the super-car market as a direct competitor to Mercedes.

• Martin Whitmarsh decided to let Mercedes supply their engines to Brawn GP after Honda pulled out of the sport which left the Brackley team with no engine.

• Brawn GP had a fantastic start to 2009, while McLaren had a shitbox.

• Liegate also further soured McLaren-Mercedes relations, feeling it was repeatedly getting caught up between the Mosley-Dennis feud.

• Mercedes eventually bought Brawn GP later in 2009.

[u/ArdenSix]

Watched this earlier, just lacking the bit about how McLaren/Zak Brown got back into Mercedes' good graces to have them back as an engine supplier again. I feel like that becomes doubly more interesting after the story of their break up

[u/Interesting-News-994]

Ron’s biggest fallacy was giving the keys to a complete muppet like Martin Whitmarsh. So many bad decisions while having the best engineers and drivers in the game.

[u/brush85]

Makes you wonder where McLaren would be if they had this leaders back in 2009...probably be on Red Bulls level of success between 2016-2020

[u/KR1736]

“McLaren was fined $1 for the offense and $99,999,999 for Ron being a complete wanker”

[u/gottogetupandbe]

I blame Ron

[u/ItsaMeKubfu]

I love The Race.

And Spygate… that God damn spygate is the ultimate cause of their downfall.