Mercedes F1 bookends in 2009 World Championship

It’s quite possible that the two teams fighting for the ‘wooden spoon’ in the 2009 F1 World Championship will be powered by the same engine supplier that won the 2008 F1 World Championship for drivers.

With the recent announcement that Honda F1 will become Brawn GP in 2009, powered by Mercedes customer engines, they join Force India F1 and, of course, the factory team, McLaren Mercedes, as the three teams powered by Mercedes Benz in 2009.

Whilst the McLaren team won the 2008 drivers championship, Force India and Honda finished last and second last respectively. That excludes Honda’s sister team, Super Aguri, but they only raced the first four races of the season before folding.

It’s hard to expect anything will change at the bottom of the grid in 2009. If anything, it is possible that Force India will move ahead of Brawn GP, due in part to the fact that Brawn GP’s preparation for the season has been in far from perfect circumstances.

Mercedes are the only manufacturer to supply engines to more than two teams. They say they are doing it for the good of the sport, and indeed it is good for the sport, as without affordable customer engines teams like Force India and Brawn GP would be unable to survive.

It could be said that Mercedes are cheapening their brand by supplying two teams who are racing for second last place, and at worst it could be suggested that Mercedes are risking their flagship McLaren team’s success by spreading themselves too thinly.

Should McLaren fear that their engine supplier – and significant shareholder – is spreading themself too thinly?

Mercedes Benz is a very large organisation and is extremely well resourced.

With the added benefit of the engine development freeze and the large reduction in the number of engines required by each team, the increased production shouldn’t affect the defending world champions.

So there appears to be no downside for McLaren, but is there any upside?

Yes, and it has everything to do with the perennial cause of frustration for leading F1 drivers – backmarkers.

Whilst backmarkers are not as much of an issue in current times, the ability of the leaders to quickly pass backmarkers without letting their pursuers slip past can be the difference between victory and a mere podium.

This could be even more important with the pending point score changes.

With the four cars most likely to be backmarkers powered by Mercedes engines, it’s unlikely they will want to upset their engine supplier by impeding the Mercedes powered McLarens.

Whilst this doesn’t mean they will deliberately block the Ferraris, BMWs and Renaults, don’t be surprised if Lewis and Heikki manage to negotiate through the pack a little easier than the others.

By creating their own ‘bookends’ for the 2009 grid, Mercedes could be giving themselves the best chance of defending their drivers championship, and perhaps claiming the manufacturers championship for the first time in a decade.