MERCEDES IN MOTORSPORT:
PIONEERS TO PERFECTION

By Alan Henry.
Published by Haynes.

Histories of famous marques seems to be flavour of the month here at Atlas F1 Towers – last month it was Ferrari, two weeks ago we looked at a book about Alfa Romeo, and this time it is the turn of Mercedes. Covering the history of Mercedes' involvement in motor racing – that's all motor racing, not just Grands Prix – is an ambitious task, and I have to say that when I first received this book I was a little dubious about what I might find within.

Published in a kind of low-rent coffee table format, and clocking in at under 200 pages, most of which are very image-heavy, it was clear that this was never going to be more than an overview. I became even more suspicious when I read Norbert Haug's foreword, which features a photo caption telling us that Norby is 'committed to excellence'. This kind of stuff is rife in those expensive, tarted-up PR pamphlets that masquerade as team biographies, such as the two BAR books that came out a couple of years back ('Realisation of a Dream' and 'From Dream to Reality'), or Gerald Donaldson's book about McLaren, entitled 'Teamwork.'

In this case though, I am happy to say that I am wrong. Alan Henry is a good motorsport writer – extremely good, when he wants to be (he was, after all, responsible for one of those dodgy BAR books) – and it is apparent from the outset that he was aware of the scale of the task ahead when he first sat down and loaded up his word processor.

In the introduction, Henry asks the Mercedes enthusiast to approach the book in "an indulgent frame of mind." He talks, briefly, about the limitations of the way he has set about writing the book, and the aspects of his work that might draw criticism from devotees of the three-pointed star.

On one hand I wonder whether such self-justification is necessary, because to be honest I doubt that a serious Mercedes fan would open this book in search of revelations in the first place, but on the other hand I find that sort of thing encouraging. Indications that the author has really thought about what they are trying to say and how they are saying it invests me with a renewed sense of faith in the author as I begin reading. Plus, when you do encounter something that you don't necessarily agree with, you tend to be a little more charitable about it!

Anyhow, on to the book. 'Mercedes in Motorsport' paints a broad picture of the marque's involvement in all major forms of racing. Opening with a brief account of the earliest recorded motoring competition – an event in which Daimler took part – Henry barrels on to cover the pre-championship Grands Prix, road racing, Formula One, rallying, Touring Cars, Sports Cars, and Indycars.

As an introduction to Mercedes history, this book is actually pretty good. It assumes that the reader has a barely minimal amount of racing knowledge, so anyone who has watched a handful of races should be able to enjoy it without feeling that that have dived in a little too deep, and yet the author has his bases sufficiently covered so as to ensure that the veteran enthusiasts will at least have a pleasant if not necessarily startlingly informative reading experience.

It should come as little surprise that Henry never goes into a great deal of depth. The limitations of the book's format would never have allowed it, and besides, an in-depth history of Mercedes in racing would probably be a rather more long-term project than Henry had in mind. Nonetheless, he manages to at least pay lip-service to most aspects of the story, and also provides some interesting contextual information if it's particularly appropriate. (The political backdrop against which the mighty pre-war Silver Arrows did battle is an obvious example).

Occasionally though, the book bogs itself down in recounting the specifics of particular races. Again, this is especially evident in the 'golden era' of the late 1930s. Lap-by-lap accounts of races don't really make for sensational reading at any time, and in the greater scheme of things they don't tend to tell us all that much. I guess it's an easy way to fill pages, but with a story of this magnitude I wouldn't have thought that to be a problem.

That aside though, the balance of contextual, anecdotal, historical and technical information is pretty good. So, it must be said, are the photos. There are a few that I had seen before (and I'm guessing that the Nostalgia Forum-types will recognise even more still) but they are generally interesting, informative, well-reproduced, and well-captioned. The book would also be a handy if you wanted to settle an argument with a fellow racing fan, as it contains brief biographies of many major figures in Mercedes motorsport (from Camille Jenatzy to Bernd Schneider), a modest bibliography, and results for every major race in which the marque participated (Grands Prix, Sports Cars, and Indy/CART).

If you're after an in-depth history of Mercedes then it should be fairly clear that this book is probably not what you're after. The same is also true for those hoping for a critical history – Henry, the dust jacket tells us, is "well connected with the senior racing management at both McLaren and Mercedes-Benz", and it shows – apart from gently stating that Mercedes "made the wrong call" for not withdrawing their CLRs from the start of Le Mans in 1999 after the cars had spent the weekend flipping all over the place (duh!), Henry is kind to the main players in the book – especially the ones who are still active!

For the average fan wanting to dabble in a little bit of racing history though, this book is ideal. Mercedes has a fabulous history, and Henry does a good job of communicating a condensed version of it. It is accessible, easy to read, and in comparison with a lot of books of this genre, reasonably priced.