Toto Talks Silverstone
The first Silverstone race was bitter-sweet. We had a good Sunday for 49 laps, then it turned upside down with just a few minutes to go. Valtteri was very unlucky, having to complete an entire lap on a punctured tyre which ultimately put him out of the points. Lewis was more fortunate and managed to get his car over the line just in time on three wheels. But the reality is that we lost 18 points with Valtteri and that we could have easily dropped out of the points with both cars.
We’ve said all along that reliability issues can be particularly costly in this shorter season and last weekend was painful proof of that. It was also a good reminder that a strong car by no means guarantees a strong result. It has always been our mindset to remain skeptical, to plan for the worst, knowing that there is no such thing as smooth sailing in our sport. We push complex machines to their limits every weekend and it would be foolish to assume that things will always go our way.
The upcoming weekend at Silverstone will be a real challenge with higher temperatures and softer compounds. The hotter conditions brought the field closer together last week and the softer tyres will mean more pit stops and more variability with strategy, so we can expect a good fight. This second race in Silverstone is also the 70th anniversary celebration of the F1 World Championship. It’s great to think of all the brilliant stories of failure and success, of close wins and hard fights this sport has written in past decades – we are proud to have made our contribution to that story, and look forward to many great stories still to come.
Fact File: The First Mercedes F1 Car
Grands Prix are typically named after the country or location they are held in, but this weekend’s race is a little different and instead commemorates a very special milestone: 70 years of the Formula One World Championship.
The sport has changed a lot from that first F1 championship event at Silverstone in 1950 to the modern F1 we know today. However, the essence of F1 remains the same – to put the greatest cars and drivers up against one another, to battle it out on track for wins and Championship titles.
Mercedes made its first F1 appearance at the 1954 French Grand Prix, just over 66 years ago, with the stunning Mercedes-Benz W 196. A car that quickly became renowned for being ahead of its time, the Silver Arrow conquered the sport from its very first race and won nine of the 12 rounds that it competed in across the ’54 and ’55 seasons.
So, to mark F1’s remarkable milestone this weekend, we’re taking a closer look at the W 196 – our first car to compete in the sport:
