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Silver Arrows (German: Silberpfeil) was the name given by the press to Germany's dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Grand Prix motor racing cars between 1934 and 1939. The name was later applied to the Mercedes-Benz Formula One and sports cars in 1954 and 1955, and currently applied to the Mercedes GP/AMG Petronas F1 cars from 2010 to present.
Contents
For decades until the introduction of sponsorship liveries, each country had its traditional colour in automobile racing. Italian race cars are still famous for their Rosso Corsa red, British ones are British racing green, French Bleu de France blue, etc.
German cars like the Blitzen Benz were white, as were the three Mercedes that won the 1914 French Grand Prix 1-2-3. On the other hand, Mercedes won the Italian Targa Florio with cars painted red in 1922 (Giulio Masetti) and 1924 (Christian Werner), blending in with the local competitors. The big supercharged 200 hp Mercedes-Benz SSKL with which Rudolf Caracciola won the 1931 Mille Miglia was called the White Elephant.
Story
In 1958 Alfred Neubauer's biography was published, and he described the origin of the Silver Arrows as being accidental. In 1934 the international governing body of motor sport prescribed a maximum weight limit of 750 kg for Grand Prix racing cars, excluding tyres and fuel. Neubauer said that when in spring 1934, the Mercedes-Benz team placed its new Mercedes-Benz W25 on the scrutineering scales prior to the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring, it allegedly recorded 751 kg (1,656 lb). Racing manager Alfred Neubauer and his driver Manfred von Brauchitsch, who both later published their memoirs, claimed that they had the idea of removing all the white lead based paint from the bodywork. The story continues that the next day the shining silver aluminium beneath was exposed and scrutineering was passed. After the 350 hp (260 kW) car of Von Brauchitsch won the race, the nickname Silver Arrow was born, according to this version.
There is however, controversy and doubt regarding this story. It did not appear until 1958, and no reference to it has been found in contemporary sources. It has since been established that von Brauchitsch had raced a streamlined silver SSKL on the AVUS in 1932, which was called a Silver Arrow in live radio coverage. Also, in 1934, both Mercedes and Auto Union had entered the Avusrennen with silver cars. The next big event was the 1934 Eifelrennen, but as few cars complying to the new rules were ready, it was held for Formule Libre, so weight was still not a race-critical issue at that time. By the 1930s, modern stressed-skin aircraft fuselage construction was already using polished and unpainted aluminium panels for streamlining and to save weight. Also the wealthy motor-racing fraternity would have been aware that in heraldry, white and silver are the same colour, or 'tincture', described as 'Argent'; (similarly yellow and gold are both called 'Or').
Neubauer's 1958 autobiography has been shown to include several embellished stories and dubious claims, including a fabricated hoax surrounding the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix, where he falsely accused several drivers of "fixing" the race.
Performance
By 1937, the supercharged engine of a Mercedes-Benz W125 attained an output of 646 hp (475 kW), a figure not exceeded in Grand Prix Racing until the early 1980s, when turbo-charged engines were common in Formula One. The Silver Arrows of Mercedes and Auto Union cars reached speeds of well over 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph) in 1937, and well over 400 km/h (249 mph) during land speed record runs.
The superiority of these vehicles in international motor racing established the term "Silver Arrow" as a legend, for example by usually winning the first race in which they were entered. The names Rudolf Caracciola, Bernd Rosemeyer, Hermann Lang, and later Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio, will always be associated with the eras of these racing cars.
Mercedes-Benz recalled its great past in the 1970s with rallye cars, and in the 1980s with the Sauber sportscars as well as the DTM touring cars, and also the multiple race winning Mercedes AMG F1 cars from 2010 onward.
Other car companies
Now a traditional colour for road-cars in reference to the Silver Arrows, most German car companies have a shade of silver in their catalogues conforming to Silberpfeil-Grau, or Silver Arrow Grey.
However, Audi and Mercedes-Benz are not the only German car companies who paint their cars in a silver colour. Porsche has also inherited the tradition of silver arrows. But the BMW company still paints its cars in the traditional white colour.
At the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours, a total of seven "Silver Arrows" were entered in the Le Mans Prototype class:
Mercedes GP/Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team (2010–present)
Since 2010, the cars of Mercedes Formula One teams have been nicknamed "Silver Arrows" by the press and by the Mercedes teams themselves. The modern cars race with the majority of their body painted in a traditional silver shade, trimmed in Petronas green.
In 2010, Ross Brawn (of Formula One's Mercedes GP) introduced the new cars for that season, the Mercedes MGP W01s, as the new Silver Arrows, with Germans Nico Rosberg and 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher driving. In 2012, Rosberg drove the Mercedes F1 W03 to victory at the Chinese Grand Prix to claim Mercedes' first victory in Formula One since 1955.
Mercedes' 2014 Formula One car, the Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid (with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg) began one of the more dominant periods by a constructor in the sport's history. The Silver Arrows won (and led every lap of) the first seven races of the 2014 season, only falling due to a KERS failure on both cars in the 2014 Canadian Grand Prix. Overall, the cars achieved 18 pole positions, 16 wins and eleven 1-2 finishes in the 19-race season. Mercedes won the 2014 Formula One Constructors' Championship (their first) while Hamilton won the 2014 Drivers' Championship.
In the 2015 season, the W06 Hybrid continued Mercedes' dominance of the turbo-charged hybrid-engine era, attaining 18 pole positions and 16 wins along with twelve 1-2 finishes. Mercedes achieved 23 consecutive pole positions from the 2014 British Grand Prix to the 2015 Italian Grand Prix. Both cars finished on the podium in each event in 2015 with the exception of the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix. The race marked the first time both cars were left off the podium since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix. On 11 October 2015 at the Russian Grand Prix, Mercedes won their second consecutive Constructors' Championship. Later that year Lewis Hamilton won his third Drivers' Championship and his second consecutive championship with Mercedes.
In the 2016 season with the W07 Hybrid, Mercedes won the Constructors' Championship for the third consecutive season. The team amassed a total of 20 pole positions and 14 front-row lockouts for the season. They won 19 of the 21 races held with eight 1-2 finishes and finished the year with 765 points (297 points ahead of the second place constructor Red Bull). Nico Rosberg won his first and only Drivers' Championship, finishing five points ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg announced his retirement five days after winning the title.