Mercedes-Benz will enter the Formula 1 World Championship with its own team, beginning with the 2010 season, and Daimler AG and McLaren Group will change their form of cooperation with effect as of 13 November 2009. This was announced by Daimler AG today.

Daimler AG together with Aabar Investments PJSC will take over 75.1 per cent of the Brawn GP team, with Daimler taking 45.1 per cent and Aabar 30 per cent. The rest of the 24.9 per cent will remain with the current stakeholders. With 9.1 per cent, Aabar is the biggest single shareholder of Daimler AG. This transaction is subject to the approval of the EU and the Swiss cartel authorities.

The background to this decision are the new terms and conditions for Formula 1. The “Resource Restrictions” set by FOTA and FIA effectively limit expenditure for the design, construction and running of the racing cars. In addition, there will be a significantly higher income available for a Formula 1 team generated by the commercial rights of the racing series following the signing of the new Concorde Agreement.

The partnership between McLaren Mercedes has been in place since 1995 and endedits 15th joint Formula 1 season in 2009. The change to the form of cooperation is taking place by mutual agreement. Mercedes-Benz and McLaren will continue to co-operate with each other and the supply of engines could continue until 2015.

The McLaren Group have set themselves new targets, especially in the automotive sector, and Daimler understands and respects these new strategic objectives. For this reason, it has been agreed that the buy-back by the McLaren Group of the 40 per cent McLaren share owned by Daimler AG will be completed by 2011.

By taking this decision, Mercedes-Benz resumes its marvellous motor racing history on the 75th anniversary of the Silver Arrows, the world’s most unique racing cars. Mercedes wants to continue the tradition in the style of these flawless Silver Arrows, which put their stamp on each era by winning the majority of the races they competed in.

“Mercedes-Benz is the most valued and best-known premium automotive brand in the world. This brand looks for competition of the utmost quality in all relevant fields in order to continually improve its performance in the face of such new challenges”, explains Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

“Due to the new Formula 1 environment, we will face the competition in future on the most important motor sports stage with our own Silver Arrow works team.

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Toyota Motorsport GmbH has today announced that it has signed a sponsorship deal with US-based IT company BMC Software Inc, effective 1 July 2004, which sees BMC become a sponsor and technical partner for the Panasonic Toyota Racing Formula 1 team.

As part of the deal, the BMC Software Inc. logo will appear on the front wing end plate of Panasonic Toyota Racing's TF104 race cars, as well as on the team's motorhome, garage pitboards and MAN technical trucks starting from this weekend's French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours.

BMC Software, Inc. is a leading provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to manage their IT infrastructure from a business perspective. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC Software solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management.

President of Toyota Motorsport John Howett: "This exciting new partnership with BMC (Using the BMC Software) will enable us to understand how we can optimise our IT resources to ensure they support both our performance and business objectives. This will enable us to improve the speed and quality of IT services, to improve strategic planning activities and concurrently provide operating cost reductions. All essential ingredients to support our quest to achieve long term success in Formula 1."

Hans van Stek, Vice President, Europe, Middle East & Africa, BMC Software said: "By sponsoring Panasonic Toyota Racing, we are universally promoting teamwork, reliability and performance.. We also chose Formula 1 because it places the BMC Software brand within a dynamic, appealing environment, which has tremendous cachet. Toyota is one of only two teams on the F1 circuit that undertakes the entire end-to-end design and manufacturing process in-house, This places an even greater need for IT to be closely aligned with the team's racing goals: which fully supports our strategy of Business Service Management," he added.

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Since its meeting with the Formula o­ne team principals on 15 January, the FIA has held two meetings with the teams’ technical directors. Today, at the second of these meetings, independent electronics experts and the teams’ own electronics specialists were present. After discussion of the financial and other effects of the measures announced on 15 January, the FIA informed the teams it intended to implement these measures as follows:

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