Mercedes (Formula Earth)

**Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Limited,** running as **Mercedes AMG Petronas FE**, was a German racing team who races in Formula Earth and it is the factory team of German car company Mercedes-Benz. Based in Brackley, UK, the team was already considered one of the best teams in then-Formula One, winning 5 drivers titles from 2014-2019. Mercedes entered Formula Earth winning the 2020 and 2021 titles thanks to Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, however from 2022 onwards the team was caught by Ferrari, McLaren and Renault and struggled later to keep up with them, with the most closest result being with Ivan Marincic failing to win the 2026 title. In 2028, Mercedes endured a tough moment when Marincic lost his life in a horrendous crash, but then emerged stronger by winning the 2030 title with Giovanni de Ziel. In 2032, the team fell off a cliff due to the new regulations, and went down to the backmarker group. In 2033, the team came close to being expelled from the sport when it was discovered that they rigged the 2028 Dutch GP by using illegal parts and bribing marshalls. After yet another controversy in 2034 due to a contract dispute between team owner Rupesh Simpson and reserve driver Miguel Angel Larrazabal Rojas, the team paid again a large fine and announced its withdrawal from the sport. The assets have been bought by a German consortium fronted by 2032 World Champion Ness Muller, forming the new team Allianz G2 Racing Team.

## Origins and Formula 1 History

Mercedes originally entered as a manufacturer in the 50's in racing and saw massive success, including the birth of the "Silver Arrows" nickname. However, they withdrew from motorsport from 1955 onwards due to the Le Mans Disaster, a horror crash which saw 83 spectators being killed by debris from a crashed Mercedes car flying towards them.

However, the company returned in Formula 1 by starting to supply various teams. Most notably, Sauber from 1993 to 1994 alongside Ilmor, and most well known, McLaren from 1995 to 2014, winning various titles with them and Brawn GP in 2009, with the team scoring a shock title. In late 2009, Mercedes took over the financially struggling champions Brawn and rebranded them into Mercedes. Despite a sluggish by their standards start in 2010, they started rising the grid and in 2014, with the new regulations of their era, won their first titles. They won 6 successive doubles from 2014 to 2019, thanks to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, the latter retiring after his title win.

## 2020-2021: The dominance continues

In 2020, with the rebranding of the series into Formula Earth, Mercedes continued with their same lineup, Hamilton and Bottas. In 2020, Hamilton had a massive fight with his teammate and won the title by just 12 points. In that season, Mercedes won 12 out of the 22 races of the season and were once again in the same spot they ran in F1, the top team on the spot. In 2021, Bottas took his revenge and with Hamilton deciding to retire at the end of the season and no longer being the dominant driver he was in his prime, won his first and only Formula Earh title, beating the likes of McLaren's Carlos Sainz and Red Bull's Max Verstappen on his way to become the second Finnish driver to win the title, the first being Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 for Ferrari.

## 2022-2027 Years without titles and close call in 2026

In 2022, Williams star George Russell was announced as replacement for the retiring Hamilton. The team failed to win a title in 2022 for the first time since 2013, with Bottas finnishing 3rd behind the nearly unbeatable McLarens and Russell finishing 5th on his first ever year as a Mercedes driver. What made matters worse was that they only scored one win, courtesy of Russell. 2023 saw them now battling with Ferrari and Red Bull and sometimes even the rising Aston Martin squad. This time, Russell scored again the team's only win of the season. Bottas, who struggled throughout the yar, announced his retirement from the sport. Audi's Ivan Marincic, one of the most naturally gifted drivers to enter the sport, was announced as the replacement, creating lots of hype for the future due to the German company's exciting young lineup.

However, the team failed to impress again in 2024, this time falling behind the big 3 and even descending into fighting Aston Martin and Renault. They did score two wins, one for each driver. In 2025, the team had a similar season, with only one win thanks to Marincic and being consistently the 4th best team behind McLaren, Renault and Red Bull. Marincic got injured in the 12th race, with test driver Roman Massey racing for the first time in the series and scoring his first podium on the last race.

2026 was the best year post-2021, with Marincic going into an unlikely title challenge and battling with Renault drivers Esteban Ocon and Marco Aurelio. Marincic won also 4 races during the season. Meanwhile, Russell had been cut adrift from the frontrunners and only scored 1 win while battling the Ferraris and Red Bulls. On the last race, with Ocon winning the race, Marincic needed a second place finish to win the title, but he failed to overtake the Red Bull of Verstappen and failed to win the title. Marincic accused Verstappen of deliberately blocking him to deny him the title, but it has been proven that he did not mean to do such thing and was only defending his position.

2027 saw the team falling behind again after the failed title challenge, with Marincic and Russell no longer being title contenders and only scoring 1 win each on their way to 5th on their standings.

## 2028-2031: Dark years, further decline and renaiscance

In 2028, Mercedes endured a very tragic moment when Marincic lost his life in a brutal crash with Ferrari driver Billy Mathman. Following this, they ran a special livery for the remainder of the season to honor the Croatian star. It was the darkest moment in Formula Earth history and a death that changed the sport forever.

The team continued with Massey being promoted in the main spot permanently despite being a title contenter in Formula International with Nissan. In the Dutch GP, the next after the fatal crash, Massey and Russell scored a briliant 1-2 finish, which was very emotional and dedicated to the late Marincic. However, the team was not the same again and failed to score a single podium again. 2029 was very similar, but with Russell falling out of favour and being replaced by former Prema driver Kevin Buffon. Once again, they failed to score any podiums and both drivers were sacked at the end of the season. Massey's departure was controversial, as he was meant to be loaned to Formula International side Saudia, but disagreed and terminated his contract, eventually moving at FE newcomers Campos Repsol.

The 2030 season saw the team enduring a massive overhaul, with a better car being made and a new lineup being introduced. Red Bull star Giovanni de Ziel and Formula International champion and reserve driver Andrei Aimansha became the new lineup, and it turned out to be effective, as the team won its first double since 2021, with de Ziel becoming the first Dutch to win the driver title. 2031 saw them again on the higher positions but failing to win any titles due to McLaren's return to dominance.

## 2032-Present: Decline, controversy and end of a legacy

The new regulations saw Mercedes being one of the teams that fell behind the pecking order in 2032. As a result of this, de Ziel and Aimansha both left the team and moved to McLaren and Aston Martin respectively. The team signed two Formula International starlets, Mark Fouert from Tesla Dragon and Santino Andreoli-Richard who was promoted from the FI venture. The team was out of its depth and scored very few points, all from Fouert.

2033 saw them again very low, scoring only 9 points, 5 from Fouert and 4 from Andreoli-Richard. However, the team was involved in controversy. It was revealed by then an unknown insider, who turned out to be Hamilton, and later confessions from Massey and several race marshalls that Mercedes rigged the 2028 Dutch GP by adding illegal parts and bribing said marshalls so that they would not get discovered in the inspection. The discovery saw the team having to pay a huge fine to FIA, remove the technical director responsible for this after being threatened by expulsion and banning former Team Principal Toto Wolff for 10 years from the sport. Wolff had already left the team in 2029, with Rupesh Simpson taking over, but the team is already in trouble.

While 2034 was a very succesful year for the disgraced team, they were stuck in controversy again, as this time they came in a contract dispute with Miguel Angel Larrazabal Rojas, who was promised a contract for 2034, but instead Simpson gave it to Andreoli-Richard. Following this, the team paid yet another large fine, and in the middle of the season, Mercedes announced that it would leave the sport for good and sell its assets. The assets were bought by Ness Muller, renaming the team into Allianz G2, the first true privateer of the sport, and ending a legacy that started from 2010.

## Notable Drivers

* Lewis Hamilton (2020-2021)
* Valtteri Bottas (2020-2023)
* George Russell (2022-2028)
* Ivan Marincic (2024-2028)
* Roman Massey (2025, 2028-2029)
* Kevin Buffon (2029)
* Giovanni de Ziel (2030-31)
* Andrei Aimansha (2030-31)
* Mark Fouert (2032-2034)
* Santino Andreoli-Richard (2032-2034)