Mercedes (Part 1)

wanted were the Mercedes. Right. So I don't know what that says about me, my family and my upbringing, but maybe it says something about the brand, just for listeners to know. I have a Mercedes hat on today. I spent way too much money on it because all F one merch costs in our mental leg I mean, can somebody a F one throw Lily a couple of hats?

Why is she buying her own hat? Absolutely? And I think what we're getting out of this is that if someone from Mercedes, just like the corporation in general, is listening, we would like hood ornaments, vintage food ornaments in our possession. It's a conic logo that's been around for years and people recognize and and believe it means driving, elegance performance. Probably all the words of their marketing team has spent billions of dollars beating into my head for fifty years.

I'm sure they're really happy to hear that. But then's all it's all not been been for, not that a singular person can can recall on a podcast. So today on the podcast, this is part one of our two episodes look into the Mercedes Formula One team. They have been one of the most dominant teams in a recent memory and maybe ever, and there's plenty to say about what's going on with them. Now let's hit it. From I Heart Radio and Sports Illustrated Studios, this is Choosing

sides one. Wow, So Mercedes has been in F one in the modern era since however, they have obviously been doing car things for like a lot longer than that. So we're gonna go all the way back to the nineteen thirties, Ben Mercedes was racing cars out there like everyone else. There was actually something in the thirties in Europe called the European Championships, which is one of the kind of precursors to F one, and the team actually

won three titles during that time. Obviously, the European Championships took a back seat to a little thing called World War two, and uh, and then when F one finally got up and running in the fifties, Uh, Mercedes actually won two World Drivers titles in a row in nineteen fifty four and nineteen fifty five. So everything's looking peach swell.

They're doing great until uh, the year's nineteen fifty five and there is an endurance race that's really iconic called the twenty four Hours of Laman Mercedes is in US race, and something to keep in mind is that UM safety and spectator protocols are not what they are like today. So you have people in this race, these spectators who are literally almost up against the literal race track, cheering for their teams. They're separated by some like makeshift wooden

fences or like some hay bales. But it's really very pretty like I know where this is going. Yeah, there's basically a multi car pile up and crash has asked US trikes at a hundred and twenty five Mercedes collides and blows up one of the drivers involved with a Mercedes driver. This crash sends massive pieces of debris from these cars into the spectator areas. In a few ghostly seconds, death wipes out whole families, leave, is killed before his lips, eyes,

and some seventies spectators with him among the bodies. Frantic survivors seek their friends, skulls cracking blood. The Mecedes was made partly of magnesium man i, which blazes micaphurnace. Yeah, it's violent. Eight three spectators and dying. Another hundred eight people are injured, and this is still one of the

most catastrophic disasters in motorsports history. Goes on. Keep in mind it was very normal for like two drivers a year to die in f one like in the sixties for instance, Like like these this is just part for the course. But yeah, the size and scope of this, and obviously combined with like some of the photographs that have survived, it's a pretty gnarly looking kind of blur of black and white photos. Is the nineteen fifty five.

It's the first thing that shows up when you put in nineteen all right, so images there's everyone running to their cars for the start, little did they know. And here's a picture that looks like it could be a World War scene. Yeah, it's fire people screaming. Yeah, and there's a whole bunch of bodies laying on the ground. Wow. Yeah, So it does lead to some some big questions and

answers around yeah, spectator safety, just general sports safety. For Mercedes obviously, on top of the fact that their driver died in this very tragic, very violent and very public way. It's understandably, you know, marketing and pr nightmare right to say we are the height of luxury and class and this and that, and now we're responsible for this terrible, awful thing that happened. So Mercedes decides to nope, on

out of there. They're saying, we are piecing out of motorsports entirely, not not just kind of Formula one with like everything, we are outie for the time being. And uh. They end up leaving for over thirty years and do not enter any form of motor sports racing until Okay, it's that dramatic change for them exactly. Yeah, skip to they decide they are going to also start getting back into Formula One, so they do not enter a team,

though they do not try and build a team. Instead, they start supplying engines to certain teams that want them. Because Mercedes engines are highly coveted. They're they're really, you know, world renowned, and I think they also just like the idea of getting back into that aspect of R and D. I will also mention an F one they often call engines quote unquote power units. To hear that word, we call it a power unit, by the way, not an engine, because the power unit is so much more than an engine.

So that's Formula one journalist Tony Cowen Brown. That's one of the reasons why so few O e M s go into Formula one. What O E M s so original equipment manufacturers and against the engine is so complex today and I won't even pretend that I can understand all the parts involved there. But there are two types of teams in Formula one. Every Formula one team out of the ten teams is a constructor team, but not

all teams works team. And what I mean by that is a constructor team, or what they call a customer team, is a team that essentially builds their car, but they will purchase their engine and some other parts from another team because at a minimum, as the f I states, which is the governing body, at a minimum, these teams must build their own car it's what we call the chassis.

It's interesting to look at the grid right now, where you have Mercedes, who is time constructor champion, who is a works team that builds their car and their engine and sells their units. One of their customer teams is Williams, who is all the way at the back of the grid. So it's a nice explanation of there is more to it than just car or driver because essentially Williams and Mercedes are driving with the same power unit with the

same engine. Okay, interesting, yeah, Okay. To get to Mercedes, we have to talk about two other teams that are no longer on the grid. But this is also one of the great Cinderella stories of Formula one. So this is the story, the tale, if you will, of bron GP. So bron GP, Yes, strap in get ready. The year now is two thousand and eight. We are balls deep in a global recession. Everything's going to ship. Michael's coaching

tennis at the University of Michigan. Just bought his house for two dollars, which he will sell in ten years for less money than he bought it for. Lily is much younger um and is listening to Paramore song Misery Business two years after it has come out. I'll repeat because she is an emo child teen I'm a teen like myself that I'm a teen at this point. But the long and short of it is the recession. No one's happy, no one's money if one is still racing.

I mean, yeah, you would just think at a time like that, when the housing markets are crashing, that Formula one seems even more gratuitous. Yes, exactly, exactly. So. Our first main character in the story is Honda. But at this point they've had a team for for a couple of seasons in the mid to late auts and things are not going well. They are you know, like, you know, eighth, ninth place, what's called P eight, P nine in the championship out of you know, ten eleven whatever teams. They're

really not not doing so hot. And um, Honda says, l O l j K. We are pulling out of two thousand nine. We're sorry to say that seven people are about to lose their jobs amid the holiday season, and um, OOPSI daisy, you know, it's just a real real clusterfuck. Um. And so at the last second, we're like the pretty much almost literal eleventh hour, this guy named Ross Braun, he is the team principal of the Haunted Team. He and the CEO, they say, hey, would you be willing to let us buy you out keep

the team? You know, keep, let everyone keep their jobs and you know, we'll kind of handle financing for next season for the most part, but we just want to make sure we save the team. Don't let this all kind of go to waste over this little thing again called a global economic crisis. So Honda ends up saying yes, and Ross Broun, technically on the documents buys a Formula one team for one pound. Yeah. Great, They kind of just they have to do some type of business transaction

and they do that. They pund a one pound buy out of this of this team. And as if things were not already weird enough. Uh, we talked on our intro episode about how F one comes out with new regulations every couple of years to increase competitiveness and and help with safety and all that. New regular lations were starting with the beginning of the two thousand nine season. So this team now has a new kind of ownership. Uh, they have new regulations, they have less money to start

out with, and they did or under normal circumstances. Most even the quote unquote poorer teams on the grid have you know, mit five million for the most part. Uh, if you're a driver on this team, you're like this sucks. Yeah, You're like, what the And by the way, I'm pretty certain growing up we had a Honda lawnmower. Just think about that. I don't think we had a Mercedes Lawmore. I don't know if Mercedes would make a lawnmore, it would be incredibly expensive, but it probably very sleek and

very trendy. Yeah, you know it is. It is interesting to think of Honda in this premier racing league when really they probably made the nuts and bolts of their business. Is like the Honda Civic, maybe the Accord, maybe my lawnmower. I don't know. Yeah, I'll explain the why this happened a second. But to get to the season, the first race comes around. The two drivers we have are these guys.

There's Jensen Button, who's sort of this I don't want to say, almost playboy but kind of party boy British guy Button and Uh and his teammate Rubens Barrichello, who is most known for being the longtime teammate of Michael Schumacher, legendary if one driver at Ferrari, and they are one of the longest and most successful partnerships in F one history. So so you've got Rubens, You've got Jensen. They are kind of they were already signed to the team when

they were with Honda's. They're just kind of yoloing this whole thing, like like they're in it for like the ride to they have no idea what's gonna happen when no one knows who's gonna happen. There's not high hopes for bron g P when they start, you know, the qualifying session and um buns on that first to finish. They end up going one two in the first race of the season. What that's amazing, sensational, sensation fantastic, And then Jensen Button ends up winning six of the first

seven races. Oh you have thank you, thank you, So Jensen Button in bron GYP wins the Ribber's Championship, braun g P walks await the Constructor's title. Fantastic. They are on top of the world, and so of course thing you're probably wondering what the hell happened, Like how did they pull that off? Were they cheating? No, but they were doing the classic F one thing of barely not cheating, um and cheating. That should be the name of someone's memoir.

It's definitely like the subtitle of F one. It's like Formula one colin barely not cheating. So essentially, the very smart people at the Honda Brawn GP whatever you want to call it factory are reading through these new regulations and basically within the engine there's something called a diffuser, and that we can go into forever about what it does.

It would just take forever. But essentially what they do is they're supposed to make the diffuser smaller, and what they end up doing is almost splitting it into and creating what's called now a double diffuser. So they find this loophole, this very specific loophole, and exploit it to do something funky to this diffuser. So when they innovate their car, obviously there's great effort put into keeping that

a secret from the other teams. Yes, it's such an interesting dance between we want you to innovate, but don't be so good that we'll then have to write exactly interesting history. Where are they now? A good question. We'll get into more of the team history after this break. So we find get to the part of the story where Mercedes comes back into the picture. Here, like two thousand's it's around the same time Mercedes is looking at

potentially entering Formula one. For any any kind of organization that wants to enter something like Formula one, you have

a couple of options. So one, you could spend untold amounts of money and resources building a team from scratch, right, developing a car from scratch, building a factory and all of that infrastructure from scratch, which is just Yeah, I think even the most egotistical of billionaires are not that egotistical to where they're too much work too like even just like you know, get the central hub where training is too much work exactly like buy a ship team

and try to exactly So Mercedes goes the route that a lot of you know, up upstarted teams. Do they buy an existing team? Which team do they buy? Bron GP coming out of this very exciting season. Yeah, Well, first of all, I have to say this is a great day for us obviously to start a new season with Mersey to Spence Grand Prix team with an own Formula one team? Is something really special for us? This must have been enormous when Mercedes got back in to motorsport.

Is this their debut into Formula one since the crash? Yes, this was huge news. Here's why it's even bigger. Okay, Formula one fans around the world, Michael are very excited. There you are. You can see the Mercedes Ben's logo behind you. You're returning to Formula one. Tell us what your emotions are like Mercedes Lands. Seven time world champion.

Michael Schumacher actually joined the team. Fantastic excitement after I got the call from from Ross in November providing a silver arrow and I'm going to be able to sit inside and and throw it around. I mean, that's really great stuff. So Michael Schumacher had famously retired from F one, made a big deal out of the retirement, and basically in the ensuing years, Michael Schumacher is basically still at races, like in the paddock and everyone's like, Michael, you've got

to do something like he just misses it. He feels it really wasn't his time or that he was kind of not forced out, but people were like, you should be ready to leave you've won seven of these things. The singular focus that it takes to be at that level, which I don't know about, like none of us know about. But then when you just leave, you don't know how to do anything else exactly. Don't even know how to

sit and have breakfast with your wife. Man, all you know how to do is just think about the race, think about the engine, think about the team. Whatever it is. They can't handle it. Yeah. So, so we're at the new era Michael Schumacher. You know, his teammate is a young guy named Nico Rossberg, whose dad Kick Rossberg one

with in Formula one decades prior. SOO got this fun, little very blond lineup going on at the new Mercedes, and yeah, sure enough, the first couple of years a little rocky, they do, you know, like like Michael Schumacher has his worst I think three seasons ever and f one right he ends up, you know, uh P eight, P nine, I think P. Thirteen and Michael Jordan playing for the Wizards similarly, yeah a little bit. Yeah, and

have Nico Rosberg driving for them, Michael Schumacher driving for them. Okay, big names in motorsport, but actually they weren't particularly successful. So that was Jenny Gal She's a prominent of one reporter for the BBC and other media outlets, and she was featured as a commentator in Drive to Survive. So year on year they were still looking for that winning formula and they were starting to accrue some of the top personnel. They already had a lot on their books,

but then they started to poach others. So for example, James Allison, one of the most successful technical directors in Formula one, was poached from Ferrari and came across to Mercedes. They just started to put in place the best team possible with Nicki Louder, their former F one driver and champion, but passed away a couple of years ago. Toto Wolf came on board. Who you know that between the two of them ran Mercedes. So we're coming into which is

when all the rules changed and the engines became hybrid engine. Yes, they're all driving prius Is at this point, I would love to see Lewis Hamilton's drive around in a Prius. It's a little different. No, they're not. Basically, without getting to two technical A big part of the regulations in this turbo hybrid era come from the fact that Formula one had started receiving a ton of criticism for not

being particularly environmentally sustainable. So huge part of this and creating engines that run on both fuel as well electricity is signaling to everyone that F one takes this seriously interestingly. Over the course of the last decade. You know, these cars are some of the most efficient when it comes to energy and power and fuel usage, and a lot of that technology then is now what we see in cars on the road as well. So just to give you a little bit of comparison here, first, here's what

a twin thirteen Formula one engine sounded like. Okay, so let's listen. Then when this turbo hybrid era started, here's what a twenty fourteen engine sounds like. Wow, that's very different. And I would assume, if anything, the cars as equally, if not faster, exactly. Yeah, So it's the whole idea is, yeah, you're not losing performance, you're just making it more efficient and environmentally friendly. It is odd that every time they

change regulation it ultimately changes everything. I mean, even changing the point after a touchdown back to the thirty yard line. Whenever that took like thirty years of football for them to go. Maybe it's just it's so much change is so difficult to make, and it seems like Formula one does it often. Maybe what would happen if football did change the rules every year? Right? And I think that would be interesting. Yeah, I would personally just love to

see the other chaos. Take the helmets off. You want to solve concussions. No more helmets because they're not going to use their helmets as weapons anyways, normal pads just like, go back to the old school leather helmets and uh yeah, no forward passing. You know, why not make it a two hundred yard field. See what happens? Multiple footballs exactly completely deflated, no no no air in them to speak up, just like this weird pigskin thing, which just kind of yeah,

there you go. Something else to note. A big announcement is made and Mercedes is bringing in a new driver and it is a young man named Lewis Hamilton's. Everyone thought he was crazy to go across the Mercedes at the time because they weren't a championship contender of a team. People thought he was nuts for leaving McLaren, a historic team that had been around for decades to go to this weird new shop at Mercedes that had been sprung out of this weird brawn GP sitch. So see us.

Everyone was sort of confused, surprised, already saying you, yeah, he just left up his career. I won't go too much into Lewis's background because he is the star, or one of the two stars of our next episode all about the Mercedes drivers. So Mercedes started winning championships in Ladies and Gentlemen, two Formula One World champion and from that point on it won every championship. Every year, Mercedes are the champions again. Of course, with that result, the

teams won the Constructors Championship for third consecutive year. Who would have ever thought a few years ago that we would be able to hold the celebration with a fifth consecutive double championship title, getting their lewishadron seven times, seven times, eight consecutive Constructors World Championships until well, let's see what happens this year. Yeah. So that's that's Mercedes overall to

present day. So they were excellent, had an enormous crash, stayed out of the sport for thirty years, came back in through an odd acquirement of basically Honda's team at a third of the price, made some changes, brought in Lewis Hamilton's and has dominated exactly. Yeah, it's a very successful manufacturer. It provides some of the engines for the

other teams as well. Um and it attracts some of the biggest players in Formula One when it comes to drivers, sponsorship, marketing, all of the deals that go around because of its success.

It so current present day. So we have these new legs two, and very early on it became pretty apparent that Mercedes car was not looking as hot going into They have an issue that is called porpoising, and the issue is basically that aerodynamically, if they're going very fast, especially in a straight line, the cars bounce up and down very quickly because it's just not aerodynamically sound bouncing up and down. I know this, let's listening, still bouncing

a lot. You hear the skipping of the floor. I mean that that doesn't doesn't control. Did they think about putting bags of kitty litter in the trunk or something, because that's what you do in Michigan when it's icy up. Yeah, I'm sure that cross the vines yes, that was very scientific. So yeah, so so Mercedes is at a weird point where they're not doing horrifically badly. They're just not the

dominant force. You know, there was a season where they, you know, one of their two drivers one nineteen of the races in a season kind of things. You go from that too, You're it's like a little bouncy house down a track, you know, it feels like a little bit more of a fall. But this is also what's interesting about sport. I mean, Mercedes was out for a two years. They didn't have to worry about this ship. Once you enter, you now have to win, you know. And so they won for a while, but you can't

keep winning all the times. They pay the other teams too to be competitive. So yeah, yeah, well, Johan I were trying to think of a tagline for Mercedes. The one that he came up with, which I think is the best working one for now, is um, they're like the team you you love to hate, right because they're they're winning all the time. Is this the New York Yankees? The Formula One? Yeah, you know in yeah and this turbo hybrid era. That is what Mercedes is. Their team

is so disciplined, so dominant. Obviously they probably get a little cocky because they're used to just winning everything. They have the best driver or one of the you know, best drives of all time, that's Lewis Hamiltons Lewis Hamilton's. Yeah. So so they're kind of been a weird spot where

they have. They're a little uncomfortable. They have not been around here in quite some time, and it's been pretty apparent in interviews that they're two drivers are just yeah, a little a little bit annoyed that know they're they're they're struggling so much. Well, there is Peyton for you today. Do you feel you maximized everything you could in the cow given all the conditions today? I mean, personally, I feel like I'm maximized everything. I don't know if we

did as a team. Who's in charge of Mercedes? I mean, who's making these calls they do? Please tell me that the person has a name that sounds like a villain and Disney. You are in luck. Oh my god. The person is a man named Toto Wolf. Of course, his names are outrageous, otherwise known as Daddy Toto. I promised Daddy issues to too is Yeah, truly an icon of the sport. I'm gonna google, I'm gonna show you. I brought pictures. Ready, this is Daddy Toto. Wolf's gonna describe

Toto for everyone. This is a handsome man. This is a handsome man. Full head of hair. By the way, everyone in Formula one has a full head of hair thanks to a lot of a lot of cosmetic procedures. Classic German picture of him standing in front of a snow capped mountain. And you know, I'm noticing with a Formula one everyone looks and exudes wealth. There's a lot of layers, there's nice watches. He's a billionaire, so I hope he's wealth yes, you know, And I hate to

draw this comparison, but he looks like me. I'm just kidding, No, I mean, this is a This is a handsome looking dude. He exudes confidence and wealth. He's six ft five. He's very imposing in the world of Formula one. Being six ft five, you might as well be a giant. Yeah, and he works out. You can tell he works out. Yeah, So yeah, that that's that's who they have. I work out, so I can tell that he works out. You know

what I mean? Yes, so that that is Total Wolf to the Austrian team principle of the Mercedes of one team. He is very large, very imposing. Total is kind of known for yet being this kind of hyper efficient businessman. Um. He's also very big on if if your ego is getting in the way of the team, he will call you out on it and has no problem being like, you're sucked up. You need to get over it, Like go go in a corner and figure it out and come back when you're ready to be a team player.

Like he's not messing around. Total, we'll put you in check exactly. Yeah, I mean, funk, it's already hard enough trying to drive these things that you got this guy in your head. Yeah, he's a pretty intense guy. But he also yeah, likes to keep things close to the vest, and he's very calculated as to when he kind of lets those go rip, right, it's a it's a choice exactly. Yeah. Like you never feel like he's being impulsive. So that's

that's Uh, that's Total Wolf. Alright, Total Nice to meet you, buddy. He he looms large in uh and he's also I think an easy person to love to hate too, because he is imposing, not a guy where you you would kind of casually like, ah, that's someone I'm going to small talk with you. He's also there's nothing about him that says underdog. You know, he is the punching up. It's Mercedes, it's wealth, it's the look, and uh, I think I think I've got a grasp on that. Excellent.

We gotta do a quick break and then we'll be back. So I guess overall, if I had to sum up, you know, the hitch for Mercedes, you're sort of like, well, how do you pitch a team to anyone to to root for? You know, why why am I buying this fifty dollar hat for for a team that that is dominated for close to a decade, right? Um, I think there's a lot of good arguments. One, you know, they aren't invincible, so we're seeing a little bit of their

their vulnerable side. So if you you're someone who maybe wants a little bit of an underdog flavor without having to commit to like a true underdog at the back of the grid, you know, Mercedes has that they do have this wacky history with Brown g p uh Yokai. What would what would you add to why Mercedes well, I think if you want to make a safe bet, Mercedes is like, you know, it's a safe bet. They have the history, they have the drivers, They're definitely financed, Yeah,

well financed. They they have the best engineers. You know, some some people like to win. Like if you if you like your team to win, are we going to use you popping in like on the audio? I like that first of all, thank you know, it gives another It gives another layer. I always like in the producer's policy. I'd also say too that if if any team is going to struggle but like figure their ship out, I'd

bet on Mercedes, you know. Whereas there other teams where it's like, oh, their their car is not good this year, like oh we're fucked for the entire year, like best of luck to you, Whereas like Mercedes, I'm like, you know, you had some people a couple of races in two already, you know, ruling them out, and I'm like, you know, there's a lot of races this there's almost two dozen

races this season. I think they'll figure it out. There's a good chance that Mercedes going to figure out whatever the issue is and at least not be embarrassing for the rest of the season. You know what I'm finding interesting about this is so much of sport, it's kind of determined who you're supposed to cheer for based on where you're from. Yeah, what's interesting about Formula one. It's

such a mix of nationalities. You're essentially picking either the brand, like I love this brand so much, I want to cheer for Mercedes or Williams and not Williams. But essentially you're picking the personality of the either the principal or the to dry Iver's. It lends itself to some heartache because you know the drivers are gonna leave eventually, You're

gonna go everywhere. So it's it's interesting that, like, I get to pick a team, but that's also what everybody gets to do, because it's not like, oh, shoot, I'm from Detroit, I have to be a Lions fan, you know, I get to actually decide what team I want to I think I just described the whole podcast just now hitting me in the head of what this is. Congratulations Welcome. Episode two only took two full episodes to get part of. Unless Unless, I'll just say, unless you're Italian, okay, and

I don't know that is there. There's a clear Italian team Ferrari. So I'll say this, I understand the the compulsion of maybe finding a Mercedes team to support and love. Ah, I want something a little not as h for sure. I want something a little more underdog. I don't need my team principle to have a seven camera professional photo shoot in front of a snow mountain. I want there would be a little more grit. If that's so. And I don't know anything about Louis Hamilton's or the other drivers.

You have to have grit to be successful. But uh, my initial take on Mercedes is a hate herbal team. I don't need that elegant brand logo in my life. Personally. You need you need to to have a little more dirt on his face. He's too uh. I just it feels a little too constructed. I think I might be right, I might be wrong. I don't know. And for for any listener disagreeing with me, keep in mind, this is the very first team principle I've ever met, so I

don't I can't really compare him to anyone else. You didn't even know that was the word. So yeah, so that's the that that's kind of a story and history of Mercedes. Uh, that's that's where we're coming from, and we're using that information to set the scene for the next episode. We're going to drive to drive. We're going to dive into the two current drivers on this team. You've got Lewis Hamilton's seven time world champion, considered a goat, if not v goat of Formula one, greatest of all time.

And then you have his new teammate as of this season, George Russell, who is out here trying to prove himself after a few funky, weird years on a not so great team in the sport. So that will be the next episode. I think we should be driving into each episode. We're not diving. Really missed opportunity on my part. Wow, I you know, we should all just pack it up and go home. I've completely missed the boat on that one.

Damn it. It was a good mistake. This has been Choosing Sides F one, a production of Sports Illustrated Studios and I Heart Radio. Tune in later this week to learn all about the Mercedes d Ivers. The show was hosted by Michael Costa and Lily Herman. This episode was produced by Lily Herman and our senior producer you Hi Mittal, who also did the sound design at the cutting room.

Studios were recorded by engineer Robot Leary, mastering by Cello Weisblue Max Miller is the executive producer and Brannan Getchus his head of audio at s I Studios. At I Heart Radio, Shaan Titone is our executive producer. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to rate us and tell your friends. It'll mean a lot