Racing is still part and parcel of the world of DaimlerChrysler, makers of Mercedes-Benz cars. But these days it has to be done in a business-like way with the aid of partnerships with McLaren, Ilmor and AMG. Karl Ludvigsen brings us up to date on the way Mercedes goes racing in the new Millennium
Mercedes-Benz ended the 20th Century with new initiatives and strong partners that gave its motor sports program an unprecedented scope. Once chiefly European, Formula One racing had become a sport for the world. Mercedes' CART involvement from 1994 through 2000 far surpassed any racing effort the company had ever made in North America, culminating in the manufacturers' championship in 1997. With the help of AMG, Mercedes-Benz committed itself boldly to an exciting new multi-national series for GT cars. In an increasingly global industry, Mercedes-Benz was determined to have a global impact.
This globalization accelerated under the leadership of the chief of Daimler-Benz, Jurgen E. Schrempp. In May 1995 Edzard Reuter was replaced as chairman of the group's management committee by Schrempp, who since 1989 had been running its Deutsche Aerospace unit. Jurgen Schrempp was no stranger to the automotive side of the business, having run subsidiaries in South Africa and the United States and also having led the Mercedes-Benz truck operations.
On 1 April 1997, Daimler-Benz implemented a Schrempp initiative. It eliminated a separate board and corporate status for Mercedes-Benz AG, which had been broken out as a separate company by Edzard Reuter. Its two divisions, passenger cars and commercial vehicles, were folded back into the mother company. A casualty of this restructuring was the head of Mercedes-Benz, Helmut Werner, whose vision of progress through partnerships had facilitated the creation of his company's new wave of motor sports programs. Subsequently Schrempp engineered Daimler's merger with Chrysler and his company's investments in both Mitsubishi and Hyundai.
"Mr. Schrempp found ways of making us aware that he was interested in motor racing," Ilmor's Paul Morgan recalled. Since 1995 the British firm Ilmor had been a key partner of Daimler-Benz in the making of engines for both CART and Formula One. Daimler took a 25 percent shareholding in Ilmor. "At first he held back, but as soon as Daimler-Benz was officially involved he started coming to the races."
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