Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands opened its doors yesterday to host a free Formula One day for fans of the sport.
Powered by Mercedes-Benz featured McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen doing demonstration laps in a 2008-spec car. Their runs also included a full compliment of powerslides, burnouts and doughnuts on the Brooklands circuit’s wet circle.
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Not to be outdone, Anthony Davidson in the Brawn GP car followed suit, while McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa did high-speed demonstration laps in F1’s Mercedes SL63 AMG safety car.
Alexander Sim ran his F3 Euro Series single-seater around the circuit, as did DTM drivers Jamie Green and Paul di Resta in their respective machines.
Former McLaren drivers Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were on hand to drive around Brooklands in various AMG cars, but even their efforts were overshadowed by several performances from AMG’s own Silver Arrows display team on the wet circle.
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Re: Mercedes hosts free F1 day
Brilliant day - well done to Mercedes for organising it and to all the drivers who attended and did their utmost to entertain the audience (and to willingly sign so many autographs!).
David Coulthard and Mika were very funny - David especially!
The "rent-a-thug" type security guards in black suits, with CIA-style earpieces and microphones up their sleeves, were totally unnecessary and out of character with the event. Funny how Pedro de la Rosa warranted only two of these running alongside his buggy, whilst Lewis had four! Ross Brawn had none - and he had the biggest smile on his face all day!
We counted ourselves fortunate to have been allocated tickets and were very happy to have made the 220 mile round trip.
Re: Mercedes hosts free F1 day
We had an excellent day yesterday,brilliant PR for mercedes and well done to them for putting it- closest you can get to a f1 car, apart from goodwood
We left early but only because it was so cold...
interesting to see that they acknowledged the Brawn connection- we went to Mercedes world earlier in the summer and there was no mention of brawn at all- I assume when merc buy into brawn,there will be less or no mention of mclaren
funniest moment of the day- Lewis being driven around in a gold buggy with 4 security men in black suits running alongside..
Re: Mercedes hosts free F1 day
For those who don't read Autocar very often, this event was clearly advertised in Autocar plus other titles several weeks ago. I went along and there must have been at least 15,000 there so this was not a special VIP event that was poorly promoted. It was infact a brilliant event for enthusiasts to get up close to the action and meet and greet the stars who were all brilliant and hands on.
10 out of 10 for Mercedes giving commitment to British Motorsport at a time when everyone else seems to fail.
By the way, most cars in the car park were not Mercedes and not even premium cars of any brand so this was not elitest or snobby in the slightest, just a spot on day out.
Give credit where it's due!