Mercedes Decides that Everyone Else was Wrong

"And After I 'ave Invaded Russia, I will do Something Equally as Pointless and Mindless: Start a Factory F1 Team" - Napoleon Bonaparte

(Image Credits: kids-learn.org) 

As I burn the midnight oil, glacially wearing away at the excitement that is my PhD, I'm glad that I can find future fellow sufferers in futility in the world's automakers. Today's candidate: Mercedes-Benz. It seems that while Toyota, BMW and, eventually, Renault are sailing into the undying lands of F1, Mercedes thinks the time is right for a factory team. History proves that it is best to learn why others have failed before treading their path. Shockingly, no one has successfully done this when it comes to invading Russia (never in the winter, people!). Perhaps, Mercedes has been broodingly watching the other manufacturers bow out--especially arch-rival BMW--and thinks that it has twigged what they got wrong. Personally, I think it is much simpler: hubris. Mercedes has won all of its championships with a "McLaren-" prefix. Now, with the cash-strapped (yet brain flush) Brawn GP team as the factory outfit, Mercedes is set to make a run on the top step all by itself; albeit without the services of current World Champion, Jenson Button. Why else would you break up one of the most successful sports partnerships since Jimmy MacElroy and Chazz Michael Michaels? Who knows. Maybe Mercedes can do what BMW, Toyota, Jaguar, and Honda couldn't do. It all feels too much like history repeating.