German carmaker Mercedes is to buy a majority stake in the Brawn GP Formula One team, Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche confirmed on Monday.
Under the deal, the new team will race as Mercedes Grand Prix in the 2010 season.
Mercedes delivered engines to Brawn in the 2009 season, when the British-based team won the constructors’ championship as well as Jenson Button lifting the drivers’ title.
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Zetsche also revealed that the Stuttgart-based company will give up its 40 per cent stake in the McLaren F1 team by the end of the 2011 season.
The decision, according to Zetsche, was in order to make the involvement of Mercedes in F1 “more efficient” than at present while also dropping costs by up to a quarter.
Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug said “a peaceful solution” had been found with McLaren while Zetsche added that Mercedes could continue delivering engines to the team until 2015.
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The driver line-up for 2010 has yet to be cleared up with Haug revealing that it would “still take a while” to finalise. “We have to address this with care,” he said.
It is thought there could possibly be an all German line-up with Nico Rosberg partnering Nick Heidfeld. Current Brawn team principal Ross Brawn is expected to stay on in his post.