There was off-track interest ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest as a result of the Mercedes AMG Petronas 'team-building' exercise that involved a dozen or so of the team’s engineers who went for a 40-mile cycle ride and managed to have a high-speed pile-up as they hurtled along beside the Danube near Vienna.
The result of this was that seven of them ended up in hospital with a variety of injuries including broken ribs, dislocated shoulders and, in one case, a nasty gash after the gentleman in question avoided the crash and then toppled over, forgetting that he had toe-clamps and head-butted a tree. The worst injuries were reserved for team boss Toto Wolff, who broke a wrist, elbow, shoulder and collar bone.
The incident was caused when the team’s MD Paddy Lowe lost control of his bike in front of the peleton. In the end, however, it proved to be a great exercise in team creation as colleagues under fire bond together best.
Fortunately the team's race drivers, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, were not there, as Wolff admitted that making a phone call to Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche telling him that his stars were out of action as the result of a team-building exercise might have been rather difficult, particularly as the team does not have a test and reserve driver these days.
The word is that it may soon get a number of them as there is a plan to create a new Mercedes Junior Team along the same lines as the celebrated concept in the 1990s which involved Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger, although that was actually a copy of the BMW Junior in the 1970s which helped to develop the careers of Manfred Winkelhock, Marc Surer and Eddie Cheever.
It's reputed that the team will probably include 16-year-old Max Verstappen, who is doing great things at the moment in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship with Van Amersfoort Racing. The youngster is a rookie in the series this year but in recent weeks has racked up seven wins and is closing in on championship leader Esteban Ocon, a 17-year-old Frenchman who drives for Prema Powerteam and is also a rookie in the series.
He has eight wins to his name but has been overshadowed recently by Verstappen. With 21 races having been run so far this season, the championship has been dominated by the pair.
In addition to Verstappen and Ocon, the name of 19-year-old DTM driver Pascal Wehrlein has been mentioned.
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People forget how much
Mercedes are involved in F1, DTM, V8 supercars, GT racing , single seater F3 I believe ? Truck racing , touring cars..
Over the past decades have brought or supported many drivers entry into F1.. Hamilton, di resta, franchitti, schumacher , frentzen to name but a few!!!
Mercedes have one of the best Motorsport programs and customer support I think, it great news
That they are thinking of going back to a junior team is fantastic and hopefully bring in some great real non pay for a race seat drivers.. Really applaud red bull policy over the years webber, Vettel, Ricardo .. It's a great way to develop talent properly !
Spinning into control