W125
W196
THEN & NOW
Mercedes dominated the start of the turbo-hybrid era in F1 ® from 2014 , but it was actually the third time the German constructor ruled Grand Prix™ racing
W125
From the earliest days of motor racing , car design followed a fairly simple formula with a front-mounted engine , as sleek a body design as you could produce and outboard wheels . Development inevitably centred around engines but , by the time the mid 1930s came around , everything moved up a gear as the two state-sponsored German manufacturers , Mercedes- Benz and Auto-Union , vied for supremacy . While the latter tried what would be remarkably farsighted revolution rather than evolution , with its Type C , with a supercharged V16 mid mounted in its chassis , Mercedes honed the traditional front-engine design , and then some !
In 1937 , the W125 was introduced with a straighteight-cylinder engine of just under 6 litres that added a supercharger to boost power to 650bhp , when tested on the bench , and that fitted into a car that had to be built under a 750kg weight limit . It could top 200mph ...
While Auto Union struggled the Mercedes was fettled into a race winner , the factory ’ s drivers taking the top four placings in the European Drivers ’ Championship of 1937 , with 36-year-old Rudolf Caracciola becoming Champion with 3 victories from the 5 Championship races .
But what was the W125 like to drive from a modern perspective ? Valtteri Bottas had the chance to drive the W125 hard . ‘ Every time a driver got into one of these cars , they risked their life , and the W125 feels like it has no proper brakes and seemingly zero grip . I was fighting the car the whole time , but it had so much power that it was like being in a rocket ..!’
W196
One of the main architects of the Mercedes success in the 1930s , Rudolf Uhlenhaut , was working hard behind the scenes for the German company ’ s return to Grands Prix™ post war , and this happened in 1954 .
In fact , exactly 70 years ago this past Thursday , Mercedes-Benz entered the French Grand Prix at Reims with W196 cars for Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling , and they finished 1 – 2 . The W196 would take the 1954 and ’ 55 titles in the hands of the great Argentinian , the car winning 9 out of 12 races it entered .
By 1954 F1 ® was a 2.5-litre formula , and Mercedes used a straight-eight normally aspirated motor for their racer . It may not have appeared as exotic as the Ferrari V12s that had raced before , but in detail the German engine was exceptional . As well as pioneering direct fuel injection the motor also had mechanically closed valves – rather than using springs to bounce the valve back into place . This concept would later be revived using pneumatics in the mid 1980s F1 ® engines by Renault . The W196 had 290bhp .
The factory had cars of three different wheelbase lengths so they could be competitive on all sorts of tracks and it even had a ‘ Monza ’ body which enclosed the wheels for better aero . Such coachwork is now banned in the sport .
Mercedes left motor sport completely at the end of 1955 and many thought they would never return , but they came back to Formula 1 ® in 2010 .
↗ Manfred von Brauchitsch getting some air time in the mighty Mercedes W125 on the Melbourne Loop at Donington Park in 1937