A Day without Speed Limits

Watching a Formula 1 car zip down the race track is one of the most thrilling moments that an auto enthusiast might experience. The sound of engines roaring at unimaginable RPMs, the blurring of colors as cars skim by like bullets - truly a rush! One wonders what it must feel like to be in the midst of something so high octane that pushes man and machine to their limits. Would a seat in the cockpit make for an auto enthusiast’s ultimate exhilaration?
 

The Mercedes-Benz Track Day Experience was an event that put most of these questions to rest. Hosted at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC), Sahara Force India’s Mercedes drivers Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg took to the wheel with a single motive - to push their cars to the very edge while giving media personnel, our YEO customers and auto enthusiasts a feel of how it is to race in a GP!

A stack of papers to be signed as an acceptance of indemnity clauses, a briefon driving dynamics and rules by Mr. Hari Singh and the lucky Track Day participants were ready to shut the visors on their helmets. What followed was a gut wrenching blast as they zipped across the BIC at speeds at excessive speeds of 200kmph in the C63 AMG one of the most powerful cars in its league and Mercedes-Benz's official car for the DTM circuit! Auto enthusiasts and young entrepreneurs alike were treated to the ‘the drive of their lives’. Post racing, it took them a while to get over the hair-raising speeds that they had travelled at. The enthralled look on all faces at the end of the day served as a testament to the fascination that the Mercedes-Benz Track Day Experience had delivered.

Mercedes-Benz has always been a strong advocate of motorsports & so have its initiatives in the country:

• In the F1 arena, Mercedes-Benz today has the distinction of having three teams, and their six cars, running on Mercedes-Benz engines.

• Sahara Force India's showcase in F1 is woven around engines manufactured by Mercedes-Benz, and the continuous podium appearances across different race tracks and varied conditions are a testimony to the technological prowess of the engines.

• Sahara Force India as the 'only Indian' F1 team on the circuit, along with Mercedes-Benz will be striving with newer initiatives to popularize motorsports in the country.

• The initiation of such collaboration together with Mercedes-Benz will go a long way in sculpting the future of motorsports in India, with the active help of our partner JPSI.

• The AMGs have been revered in the motoring circuit with high esteem ever since its inception and each race reaffirms the belief in the amazing performance capabilities of this beautiful racing machine.

• In India, just like the other part of the world, the AMGs have won hearts of all motoring enthusiasts and is synonymous with performance motoring.

• The entire range of AMG from Mercedes-Benz's stable are offered for sale in India for customers and enthusiasts who are passionate about performance motoring.

Mercedes Track Day Contest!

Fans all over the world love two things about Formula 1 – the speed of the sport and the superb racing cars! Mercedes-Benz is offering you a unique opportunity to experience the thrill & fascination of the Formula 1 Race Track.

On 27th March 2012 the Sahara Force India Mercedes drivers Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg, will be visiting India to drive one lucky fan around the Buddh International Circuit in a C63 AMG.

To participate in the contest, all you’ve got to do is:

• Tweet your wildest Mercedes-Benz F1 fascinating moment using the hashtag #Fascination and mention @mercedesbenzind along with your tweets.

• For Example your Tweet: My moment of #fascination is when i hear the sound of the roaring Mercedes-Benz engines @mercedesbenzind

Contest Starts 23rd March Friday – 12.00 P.M and ends on 25th March Sunday – 06.00 P.M

One Lucky Participant will grab the amazing opportunity to be driven around the Buddh International Circuit by Sahara Force India Mercedes drivers.

Terms & Conditions - This contest is only open to resident citizens of India 18 years & above in age. The winner will be chosen at the sole discretion of Mercedes-Benz India and will be final and binding.

The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship

The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship is ready to flag off this weekend with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix held at the picturesque Albert Park.

Here’s some trivia on the 5.303 km street circuit located south of Melbourne city centre.

•   From 2002 - 2011, the winner of the Australian Grand Prix has gone on to become World Champion seven times
•   DRS can be used over 56% of the lap distance in qualifying, a total of 2970 metres
•   The Safety Car has been deployed in six of the last ten Australian Grands Prix on a total of 15 occasions
•   Mercedes-Benz power has won three of the last four Australian Grands Prix (2008, 2009, 2010)

With the F1 W03 tested endlessly; Michael & Nico seem ready to get into the thick of it, here’s what they had to say…

Michael Schumacher

“Finally, we can stop trying to read the tea-leaves from testing and actually go racing. Melbourne is a perfect location, and the ideal place to start the season. The city loves Formula One, the fans create a great atmosphere and obviously, as drivers, we feel that too. And because we’ve already got a buzz about what’s to come, it just makes you want to get out there and start driving. During winter testing, we completed lots of miles and built up a really complete set of data, which should put us in a good position for the first race and to develop the car even further in the right direction. We’re ready for the 2012 season to begin…”

Nico Rosberg

“I’m really looking forward to the start of the new season in Australia next weekend. I had a perfect winter break with plenty of rest, a good training camp and a successful pre-season test programme where we were able to put a lot of mileage on our F1 W03 car. So we are really ready for the first race. I always love the atmosphere in Melbourne; it’s a great city and the fans are fantastic. After all of the hard work, and all of the speculation, it will be really interesting to see where we are on Saturday afternoon after qualifying. Before heading to Australia, I will be in New Zealand for a bike training camp to help me adjust to the time difference and the climate ‘Down Under’.”

Ross Brawn, Team Principal

“The build-up to the start of a new season is always an exciting time, no matter how many times you have experienced it, and everyone at the team is looking forward to the action getting underway in Melbourne next week. We are well prepared, both at the factory and on track, as a result of our structured development and testing plan, and I am confident that we are in a good position. How this translates to our performance relative to the competition is, of course, the key question and it will be interesting to see how it all shapes out next weekend. My thanks to all of the team at Brackley and Brixworth for their hard work and dedication over the winter months and I hope we will be able to reward them with a strong season. Melbourne has always been one of the atmospheric races on the calendar, and certainly one of my favourite cities to visit, so I look forward to a good week ahead.”

Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“It's only a little over 100 days since Formula One was in Brazil for the final race of the 2011 season, but now we are ready for the 2012 season to begin and to get back to what we love best: going motor racing. Starting the third season with our Silver Arrows works team, we think we are better prepared than the two years before, which indicates that our learning process is heading in the right direction. The Mercedes F1 W03 has run reliably since its first run on 16 February, completed 4,450 km during pre-season testing, and achieved an average daily testing mileage of 472 km: this equates to an average of more than one and a half Grand Prix distances during each of the nine test days. Nico and Michael are both excited about the new season and highly motivated, while our team members back at base in Brackley and Brixworth and on track are working extremely hard to deliver both performance and reliability at the opening race. The whole team has done a good job in both areas this winter. After testing, we know we have a solid basis to work from and a good platform for development. Understandably, there is much speculation about the pecking order of the new season, and finally we will get a first answer on Saturday afternoon during qualifying in Melbourne, when everybody has to put their cards on the table. Before the first race of this long season, I would like to thank all our team members who have worked so hard and with dedication during the past months, with our clear target which is making the next step in improving our performance compared to our competitors. We aim to show that we have taken this step forward as the first part of a continuous process of improvement.”

#DaywithMerc – Event Review

Fourteen renowned automotive journalists from some of the most sought after portals for information on vehicles in India gathered at our Chakan facility for a day of details & demonstrations. It was time to let our entire fleet out for these die-hard auto fanatics to experience & in turn extend their fascination to each one of you.


A tour of the facility where fascination is born, an insight into the technology & a snapshot of Mercedes-Benz through the years & for the years to come left everyone wanting more & that’s exactly what they got as they walked out onto the asphalt for a rendezvous with the glittering beauties on a clear spring afternoon.

To these enthusiasts, AMG sounded much like Ready-Set-Go! As they punched the accelerators to take each one of these engineering masterpieces through their paces, pushing them ever so harder in & out of corners in a bid to juice out the character that’s distinct to each one of these cars. Surely they were further trying to exert their driving abilities for bragging rights amongst themselves.

Exhaust notes tearing through the air at a distance, adrenaline pumping around the MIDC Chakan complex @ breakneck speeds & that unmistakable smell of smoldering rubber saw the mid-day turn to dusk. They returned like ‘kids in a candy store’ on a sugar high, all smiles & thrilled to say the least. The SL 63 AMG was the most sought after machine while the C 63 AMG was everyone’s favorite little beast. There’s more to come as we await the reviews from the auto journalists themselves, until then here’s the line-up & moments captured.