Mercedes AMG Reminisce Their Formula One Journey so Far

Earlier today, the Mercedes AMG team put out a tweet, doing a Throw Back Thursday. The German outfit were reminiscing their journey to Formula One and what has happened since then. Back in 2010, the team took over the championship-winning Brawn GP team and came out as their own entity.

They had initially refrained from racing owing to the immediate aftermath of the 1955 Le Mans disaster. A major crash caused large fragments of debris to fly into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Bouillin and injuring nearly 180 more. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history

The team did not retain Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, and opted for a new line-up instead. They elected to go all-German and roped in Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, fresh out of retirement. In their debut season, they ended up 4th in the championship, courtesy three podiums for Rosberg and a number of point-scoring finishes for Schumacher. Their form dipped slightly in 2011, with no podiums for either driver. 2012 was a bit better though, with a solitary podium from Schumacher and a win and podium for Rosberg.

Schumacher eventually retired at the end of the 2012 season for good and Lewis Hamilton was brought in. After finishing runners-up in 2013, Lewis Hamilton romped to the title in 2014 and repeated the feat in 2015. However, in 2016, it was his teammate, Nico Rosberg’s turn to claim the crown, only to retire immediately after. Hamilton was back to his unstoppable self in 2017 and 2018 once again, taking his 5th title.

Now, the Mercedes AMG F1 team is looking ahead to the 2019 season starting this weekend. According to Mercedes’ tweet, on 14th March 2010, the team had its first run in Bahrain, their first time in F1 as a works team since that fateful day 55 years ago. Since then, they have never ever looked back and went from strength to strength. Their line-up of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas remains unchanged since 2017.