The Mercedes-Benz marque first appeared in 1926 under Daimler-Benz but can trace its history back to Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft's 1901 Mercedes and Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, whose patent specification is recognised today as the ‘birth certificate’ of the modern petrol-powered automobile. Since those early days, the marque has prided itself on a reputation for quality and durability and its brand motto is ‘the best or nothing’.
Like many other high performance brands Mercedes-Benz has a long history of participating in motor racing. Around 60 years ago, the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows were almost unbeatable throughout the entire racing season winning in all the major classes of international motor sport: in 1955, Juan Manuel Fangio won the Formula 1 world championship for the second time running driving a Mercedes-Benz W196 R and took the sports car world championship with the 300 SLR (W196 S). Meanwhile, Werner Engel became European touring car champion in the 300 SL (W198) production sports car.
Today, Mercedes-Benz is the name to beat once more in Formula 1, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg helping the team to win back-to-back driver and constructor championships between 2014 and 2017.
