Bartek Sikorski

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Mercedes-Benz may be about to ramp up its presence in Formula 1 by signing up the motorsport arm of its inhouse tuner AMG to run a Mercedes ‘B-team’.
According to reports in the German press today, AMG’s racing arm HWA is preparing to enter a Mercedes-powered F1 team in 2009. Our information also suggests that the bid will be backed by money from a consortium of Middle Eastern businesses based in Dubai – potentially the same backers that might have invested in David Richards’ stalled Prodrive team.
If true, the HWA (the initials of the firm’s founder Hans Werner Aufrecht) could provide Mercedes with something that, F1 experts claim, it has been lusting after since it first got involved with McLaren in 1995: the basis of a works team that it could exercise total factory control over.
It would also pour more fuel over the fire surrounding the turbulent relationship between Mercedes and McLaren. Next season will make it nine years since the latter won an F1 championship of any kind, a record which is rumoured to be causing plenty of consternation with Mercedes.
With the current British-built Mercedes SLR McLaren likely to be replaced by an AMG-developed supercar, an HWA team would be an opportunity for the three-pointed star to sever all links with Woking.
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