Quit while you’re ahead. We’ve all received that bit of advice at some point in our lives, and some of us have been wise enough to heed it. But Mercedes is here to tell us that it’s not about to give up on Formula One.
Rumors have been circulating that the UK-based, German-funded team was planning to exit the sport after 2018. The idea, it seems, is that Mercedes would like to quit on a high note, with nothing left to prove after years of utter domination. But according to AutoWeek, the team’s principal has dismissed the reports as “pure nonsense.”
Mercedes has a long and checkered past in grand prix racing. It competed in the pre-war era to great success. It won even more races in the mid-1950s with the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio behind the wheel, but shut down its motor racing programs after the disastrous crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955.
Several decades passed before the German automaker returned to Formula One, taking over the victorious Brawn GP team after Honda pulled out. It retained the services of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, but it was only after several seasons and the seven-time world champion’s replacement with Lewis Hamilton that the team found its form again.
Hamilton and Mercedes are now in the lead to take their fourth consecutive world championship, painting them both as the undeniable dominant force in Formula One today.
With the regulations which Mercedes has embraced soon to change, the speculation has been that the German automaker could call it quits before it’s eventually knocked off its perch. But team principal Toto Wolff says the rumors are so outlandish as to “border on idiocy.”
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