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Silver Arrows (german: link=no, Silberpfeil) was the nickname given by the press to Germany's dominant
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
and
Auto Union Auto Union AG, was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today. As well as acting as an umbrella firm f ...
Grand Prix motor racing Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition, has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as early as 1894. It quickly evolved from simple road races from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car an ...
cars between 1934 and 1939. The name was later applied to the Mercedes-Benz Formula One and sports cars in 1954 and 1955, then to the Group C prototype racing sports cars that were successful at the Le Mans in the late 1980's, and currently applied to the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team cars from 2010 to present. For decades until the introduction of sponsorship liveries, each country had its traditional colour in automobile racing. German race cars for their ''Silver Arrows'' silver, Italian for their ''
Rosso Corsa Rosso corsa is the red international motor racing colour of cars entered by teams from Italy. Since the 1920s Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, and later Ferrari and Abarth have been painted in ''rosso corsa'' ("racing red"). ...
'' red, British ones are ''
British racing green British racing green, or BRG, is a colour similar to ''Brunswick green'', ''hunter green'', ''forest green'' or '' moss green'' ( RAL 6005). It takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of the United Kingdom. This originat ...
'' 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 The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...
with cars painted red in 1922 (
Giulio Masetti Giulio Masetti (1895 – 25 April 1926) was an Italian nobleman and racing driver, known as "the lion of Madonie" from his dominating the Targa Florio in the early 1920s. Born in Vinci, he was the older brother of the racing driver Conte Car ...
) and 1924 (
Christian Werner Christian Werner (May 19, 1892 in Stuttgart – June 17, 1932 in Stuttgart-Cannstatt) was a German racecar driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automob ...
), blending in with the local competitors. The big supercharged 200  hp Mercedes-Benz SSKL with which
Rudolf Caracciola Otto Wilhelm Rudolf CaracciolaBolsinger and Becker (2002), p. 63 (30 January 1901 – 28 September 1959) was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One Wor ...
won the 1931
Mille Miglia The Mille Miglia (, ''Thousand Miles'') was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi, which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before World ...
was called the ''White Elephant''.


Origin of the name

In 1958,
Alfred Neubauer Alfred Neubauer (29 March 1891 in Neutitschein – 22 August 1980 in Stuttgart) was the racing manager of the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955. Biography Neubauer's father, Karl Neubauer, was a furniture-maker in Neutitschein () ...
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 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 The Mercedes-Benz W25 was a Grand Prix racing car designed by Daimler-Benz AG for the 1934 Grand Prix season, in which new rules were introduced, and no championship was held. In 1935, the European Championship was resumed, and it was won by Ru ...
on the scrutineering scales prior to the
Eifelrennen The Eifelrennen was an annual motor race, organised by ADAC Automobile Club from 1922 to 2003, held in Germany's Eifel mountain region even before the Nürburgring was built there. History Starting from 1922, the first races were held on a 33 ...
at the
Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
, it allegedly recorded . Racing manager Alfred Neubauer and his driver
Manfred von Brauchitsch Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch (15 August 1905 – 5 February 2003) was a German auto racing driver who drove for Mercedes-Benz in the famous "Silver Arrows" of Grand Prix motor racing in the 1930s. Racing career Brauchitsch won t ...
, 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 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 The Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße ('Automobile traffic and training road'), known as AVUS, is a public road in Berlin, Germany. Opened in 1921, it was also used as a motor racing circuit until 1998. Today, the AVUS forms the northern par ...
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 The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
construction was already using polished and unpainted aluminium panels for streamlining and to save weight. 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 Fixing may refer to: * The present participle of the verb "to fix", an action meaning maintenance, repair, and operations * "fixing someone up" in the context of arranging or finding a social date for someone * "Fixing", craving an addictive drug, ...
" the race.


Performance

By 1937, the supercharged engine of a
Mercedes-Benz W125 The Mercedes-Benz W125 was a Grand Prix racing car designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut to race during the 1937 Grand Prix season. The car was used by Rudolf Caracciola to win the 1937 European Championship and W125 drivers also finished in the second, t ...
attained an output of 646 hp (475 kW), a figure not greatly exceeded in Grand Prix Racing until the early 1980s, when turbo-charged engines were common in
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
– although it was at least matched as early as the late 1940s by conventionally fuelled Grand Prix engines like the BRM V16, despite the rules restricting later engines to half the cylinder capacity. The Silver Arrows of Mercedes and Auto Union cars reached speeds of well over in 1937, and well over 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 Otto Wilhelm Rudolf CaracciolaBolsinger and Becker (2002), p. 63 (30 January 1901 – 28 September 1959) was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One Wor ...
,
Bernd Rosemeyer Bernd Rosemeyer (14 October 1909 – 28 January 1938) was a German racing driver and speed record holder. He is considered one of the greatest racing drivers of all time. Though he was not a member of the Nazi party, he was made a member of the S ...
,
Hermann Lang Hermann Lang (6 April 1909 – 19 October 1987) was a German racing driver who raced motorcycles, Grand Prix cars, and sports cars. Prewar racing Born in Cannstatt near Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, at age fourteen, Hermann Lang had to ...
, and later
Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...
and
Juan Manuel Fangio Juan Manuel Fangio (American Spanish: , ; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995), nicknamed ''El Chueco'' ("the bowlegged" or "bandy legged one") or ''El Maestro'' ("The Master" or "The Teacher"), was an Argentine racing car driver. He dominated t ...
, will always be associated with the eras of these racing cars. Mercedes-Benz recalled its great past in the 1970s with rally cars, and in the 1980s with the
Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in . After operating it u ...
sportscars and DTM touring cars. As well as the 2010 return to F1 racing of AMG-Petronas cars, dominant there since 2014.


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 Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...
and
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
are not the only German car companies who paint their cars in a silver colour.
Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...
has also inherited the tradition of silver arrows. However, BMW still paints its cars in the traditional white colour. At the
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
Le Mans 24 Hours, a total of seven "Silver Arrows" were entered in the
Le Mans Prototype A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were create ...
class: *three
Mercedes-Benz CLR The Mercedes-Benz CLR was a set of racing cars developed for Mercedes-Benz through a collaboration with in-house tuning division Mercedes-AMG and motorsports specialists HWA GmbH. Designed to meet Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype (LMGTP) regu ...
*two British-built LM-GT1
Audi R8C The Audi R8C is a Le Mans Prototype racecar that was built by Audi and designed by Peter Elleray to compete in the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans under the LMGTP category. It was developed alongside the open Audi R8R LMP category spyder, prior to bein ...
*two
Joest Racing Joest Racing is a sports car racing team that was established in 1978 by former Porsche works racer Reinhold Joest. Their headquarters are in Wald-Michelbach, Germany. Early years As a combined driver/team owner, Reinhold Joest first began to ...
LMP
Audi R8R The Audi R8R was a Le Mans Prototype built by Audi for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a predecessor to the dominant Audi R8 which debuted in 2000. It was raced alongside the British built closed-cockpit Audi R8C. Development The R8R project ...
that scored third and fourth.


Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team (2010–present)

In , with the formation of Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team, Mercedes-Benz returned to Grand Prix racing as a constructor. Mercedes' cars have been nicknamed "Silver Arrows" by the press and by the team itself. The modern cars race with the majority of their bodies painted in a traditional silver shade, trimmed in
Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), commonly known as Petronas, is a Malaysian oil and gas company. Established in 1974 and wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with all oil and gas reso ...
green. In 2010, team principal Ross Brawn introduced the team's first cars as the new ''Silver Arrows'', with Germans
Nico Rosberg Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German-Finnish former professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 2006 to 2016, winning the World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. The only child of Fi ...
and 7-time world champion
Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...
driving the Mercedes MGP W01. In , Rosberg drove the
Mercedes F1 W03 The Mercedes F1 W03 is a Formula One racing car designed by Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team for use in the 2012 Formula One season. The car was driven by seven time World Drivers' Champion Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. The car was ...
to victory at the
Chinese Grand Prix The Chinese Grand Prix () is a round of the Formula One World Championship and was contracted to return in 2023 but will now not do so until 2024 at the earliest. It is currently held at the Shanghai International Circuit, Jiading, Shanghai, d ...
to claim Mercedes' first victory in Formula One since 1955. Mercedes' Formula One car, the
Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid The Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, originally known as the Mercedes F1 W05, was a highly successful Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Bob Bell, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, J ...
(with drivers
Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mich ...
and
Nico Rosberg Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German-Finnish former professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 2006 to 2016, winning the World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. The only child of Fi ...
) 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 The 2014 Canadian Grand Prix (officially the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada 2014) was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, on 8 June. It was the seventh race of the 2014 Formula One World Champion ...
. 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 Formula One, abbreviated to F1, is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which ...
(their first) while Hamilton won the 2014 Drivers' Championship. In the 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 The 2015 Italian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Gran Premio d'Italia 2015) was a Formula One motor race held on 6 September 2015 at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy. The race was the twelfth round of the 2015 season, ...
. 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 The Russian Grand Prix (russian: Гран-при России, Gran-pri Rossii) was an annual motor racing event held at Sochi Autodrom – a permanent circuit built around the Olympic Park in Sochi – as part of the Formula One World Champio ...
, 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 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 Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...
). 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. Former Williams driver
Valtteri Bottas Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alfa Romeo, having previously driven for Mercedes from to and Williams from to . Bottas has scored race wins and podiums. H ...
joined Hamilton for the season as drivers of the
Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ The Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ was a Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Paddy Lowe, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, John Owen, Mike Elliott and Jarrod Murphy to compet ...
. In most of the early races, Mercedes was strongly challenged, and at times beaten, by the much-improved
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
team's SF70H car. Ferrari's
Sebastian Vettel Sebastian Vettel (; born 3 July 1987) is a German racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2007 to 2022 for BMW Sauber, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing, Red Bull, Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari, and Aston Martin in Formula One ...
led the Drivers' Championship for most of the season. Ultimately Mercedes' strong second half of the season earned them their fourth consecutive Constructors' Championship while Hamilton won his fourth Drivers' Championship. The 2017 ''Silver Arrows'' took 15 pole positions, 12 wins and four 1–2 finishes in the 20 races held. During most of the season, Mercedes was again strongly challenged by Ferrari ( SF71H) and at times,
Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...
's RB14. Through the first half of the season, the three teams were virtually sharing victories. Ferrari had four wins, while Mercedes and Red Bull each had three wins after 10 races. Mercedes trailed Ferrari by 20 points after the 2018 British Grand Prix. Once again (this year with the W09 EQ Power+) Mercedes put together a very successful second half of the season to claim their fifth consecutive Constructors' Championship. Hamilton won his fifth Drivers' Championship, his fourth with Mercedes in the previous five years. Overall the team won 11 of the 21 races, with four 1–2 finishes and 13 poles. Mercedes started the season with huge successes as they finished 1–2 in the first five races of the season and won the first eight. For the season Mercedes won 15 of the 21 races including nine 1–2 finishes and 32 podiums on their way to their sixth consecutive Constructors' Championship. Drivers
Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mich ...
and
Valtteri Bottas Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alfa Romeo, having previously driven for Mercedes from to and Williams from to . Bottas has scored race wins and podiums. H ...
in the AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+ also achieved 10 poles and 9 fastest laps. Hamilton won his sixth Drivers' Championship, his fifth with Mercedes. The team has won both the Drivers' Championship and the Constructors' Championship in each and every year from 2014 to 2019 and are the only Formula One team in history to win six consecutive such "double-championships". For the 2019 German Grand Prix at
Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...
the cars raced in a special livery honouring the origins of their silver colour and to also celebrate the team's 200th start in F1. The cars were painted in such a way to pay homage to the story of the white paint being peeled away, exposing the shiny silver underneath. For the season, while originally going to use a silver livery as usual, Mercedes decided to switch to an all-black livery, following the growing worldwide support for the
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
movement, and the postponement of the season. Hamilton prompted the livery change, saying he wanted the team to show its support for the cause through more than just social media posts, which led to the idea to adopt a new livery and launch a drive to improve diversity within the team. The team would continue to use a black livery going into .


References


Further reading

''NB: For sources specifically about
Auto Union Auto Union AG, was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony. It is the immediate predecessor of Audi as it is known today. As well as acting as an umbrella firm f ...
Silver Arrows, see
Auto Union racing cars The Auto Union Grand Prix racing cars types A to D were developed and built by a specialist racing department of Auto Union's Horch works in Zwickau, Germany, between 1933 and 1939, after the company bought a design by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche in 1 ...
. For sources specifically about
Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
Silver Arrows, see
Mercedes-Benz in motorsport Throughout its long history, Mercedes-Benz has been involved in a range of successful motorsport activities, including sportscar racing, touring car racing, Grand Prix racing, and rallying. It is currently active in GT racing, Formula E and Formula ...
.''
* * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Grand Prix History
Die Silberpfeile
The Silver Arrows 75th Anniversary
Carsguide Historical article {{Silver Arrows Mercedes-Benz racing cars Formula One cars Grand Prix cars Nicknames in sports