WATCH: From Fangio to Hamilton – The origins of the Mercedes F1 team

New fans of Formula 1 could be forgiven for thinking that the Mercedes team only got involved in the sport in the past decade or so. But the Silver Arrows’ history goes back much, much further than that…

So far, in fact, that in 2019, Mercedes-Benz celebrated a full 125 years of involvement in motorsport – while prior to the inauguration of the F1 World Championship in 1950, Mercedes had been hugely successful in pre-war era Grand Prix racing, with their cars driven by heroes of the day like Dick Seaman and Rudolf Caracciola.

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1954 saw Mercedes enter the World Championship as a constructor for the first time, the Silver Arrows winning two drivers’ titles on the bounce with Juan Manuel Fangio and their glorious W196, only for the 1955 Le Mans disaster to ruin Mercedes’ appetite for motorsport and cause them to pull out of F1.

A return as an engine supplier in the 1990s, first with Sauber, and then more fruitfully with McLaren, paved the way for a full works comeback in 2010 – and since 2014, no other team has won the drivers’ or constructors’ title. Yep, when Mercedes enter a championship, they like to do things properly…

Enjoy the video up top, as we delve back into the fascinating origins of today’s Mercedes team.