Last year, right around this time, I hyped up the Mercedes GP team with fervour and zeal. Mercedes was returning to Formula 1 for the first time in 55 years and their history in the sport needed no further explanation than the iconic term “Silver Arrow”. In the end, the team’s 2010 results landed them in 4th place overall with fewer than half the points of the winning Red Bull Racing. This, despite the combined brain trust of Schumacher and Brawn. So that puts my life-long F1 predictions at 0/1.
To bring my educated guesses record back to a more respectable ½, I’m going to use the power of motion picture, and a stretch of the definition, to make my case.
Starting this weekend in Melbourne, Australia, drivers Rosberg and Schumacher will be working with the very pretty W02 car to return some measure of pride to the Mercedes-Benz name. Unfortunately for them, they’re not carrying the Silver Arrow torch anymore.
In all likelihood, our new Silver Arrow driver won’t be a Mercedes GP man, but will be German-speaking. Another minor difference is that he will be using a car backed by an Austrian company instead of a German company. But last time I was in Austria, they spoke German, which makes them German enough for me.
The silver arrows live, now they’re just red, blue, and as yellow as the benches in Vienna’s Museum Square.
Museum Square. Vienna, Austria 2009.