Mercedes GP Petronas Marshals Factory Tours 2010

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 07:47 (Ref:2620149)

Ladies & Gentlemen,

I am pleased to announce that Mercedes GP Petronas have extended their offer of factory tours into 2010. Our sincere thanks to Ross Brawn and his PA Nicole Bearne for their continued support of the BMMC.

Details and dates are now on our website www.marshals.co.uk

Don't forget, the tours are only open to marshals (no wives, girlfriends etc) and are limited to ten marshals per tour so get your e-mails in early to avoid disappointment.

Ian Lewis · 27 Jan 2010, 08:04 (Ref:2620156)

Can this naughty boy come along?

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 08:06 (Ref:2620158)

Spose so.....

SRPhoto · 27 Jan 2010, 08:13 (Ref:2620162)

Email sent

Never been on one of these before, so looking forward to it, if I got in early enough.

Wahoo... Down for the June date.

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 08:15 (Ref:2620164)

Go did and reply sent...

Lord Summerisle · 27 Jan 2010, 09:25 (Ref:2620190)

Its is an excellent tour and Nicola is a brilliant host.

Thanks to the guys at the factory for giving their time up to show us around their depts.

The STIG · 27 Jan 2010, 09:34 (Ref:2620197)

I'm not a member of the BMMC, can I apply or do I have to join first?

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 09:35 (Ref:2620198)

The offer is open to ALL marshals

Greem · 27 Jan 2010, 13:32 (Ref:2620330)

Email flying through T'Interweb hingmy now.

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 13:38 (Ref:2620334)

Guys, I have e-mails flying in so will have to sort through them when I get home from work this evening. I will reply to everyone so please be patient.

gravel_monkey · 27 Jan 2010, 13:54 (Ref:2620341)

i have no access to email while in work and wont be home till gone 9pm, can i reserve a place with a pm untill i get home stephen? it would be for the november one.

The STIG · 27 Jan 2010, 14:01 (Ref:2620344)

E-mail sent (having received another e-mail from Dale at BARC)

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 14:18 (Ref:2620351)

For your guide I currently have 34 unread e-mails in my in box which I will deal with this evening. I will allocate places on a first come first served basis and will open e-mails in the order in which they arrived in my in box. I can't be fairer than that folks.

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 15:50 (Ref:2620394)

My in box of Mercedes messages is now close to 60 so please be patient, I will wade through as many as possible this evening. Those who are not successful I will tell and put on to a reserves list. As with the main requests, reserves will be allocated in the order I receive your e-mails.

I will try to let you know here what the situation is regarding places this evening.

**Stephen Green** · 27 Jan 2010, 19:26 (Ref:2620518)

Guys,

Please, no more e-mails. All places have gone and I have a reserve list of close to 80 names! Those who have been successful have been informed via e-mail already, the others I am working through slowly.

I took the requests in the order in which they arrived in my in box

White flag man · 27 Jan 2010, 22:47 (Ref:2620655)

Well done Stephen.
I'm sure everyone will enjoy the tour and Nicole is an excellent host.

The STIG · 27 Jan 2010, 23:10 (Ref:2620672)

I'll second that, Big thanks to Stephen, and everyone at Mercedes GP for setting this up - and I guess I'll see you all in September!

SRPhoto · 28 Jan 2010, 19:37 (Ref:2621229)

In all the excitement the other day of getting my name on the list, I forgot to thank Stephen for sorting this out.

THANKS

Stuart Hill · 28 Jan 2010, 20:34 (Ref:2621273)

Quote:

Originally Posted by White flag man

Well done Stephen.
I'm sure everyone will enjoy the tour and Nicole is an excellent host.

I know you will all enjoy the tour but trust me,...................

those of us that were there for the FIRST tour (hosted by Mr Willem Toet) will (or should) NEVER forget, an unimaginable experience!!

and all of this started with myself and another marshal (whilst helping Willem rebuild his gearbox), just ask the question.......

"How would Hillclimb competitors feel about contributing £1 per entry towards subsidised marshal's clothing?" the answer................?

"Do you think that they might like to look around the factory of my team?"

Trust me, it took Steve (not Green,

) and I about 0.00002 of a second to say ..... DAMN RIGHT (or words with that effect).

enjoy your visit guys and gals but more importantly,............

many, many thanks to all of those who have made this type of experience available to so many more. You really don't know just what it means to people like us. To you, it's your job, to us...............

dream time.

Thank-You.

Greem · 31 Jul 2010, 10:58 (Ref:2736278)

I went to Mercedes GP Petronas yesterday afternoon for the aforementioned tour - hello to all the other folks who went too.

It was excellent.

We were hosted by Lucien Bigois, who is the team's fan PR chap (manages the website for fans amongst other things). Whilst not a techy type, he knew plenty about the development process and the cars themselves. He also appears to be a mine of intrigue and paddock gossip!

With the team out in Hungary the factory was relatively quiet, which meant we got to spend some significant time in both the Composites area and the race bays. We were all quite amused to find that they have an almost complete, pre-cut-but-not-yet-laid-up flat-pack car in storage just in case. Ikea it most certainly ain't

When we got down to the race bays, there was Schumacher's car from the first few races of this year, pretty much naked - no floor, wings, engine cover, seat or driver accoutrements. Pretty fascinating seeing it stripped so bare, and the engineers working on it spent almost an hour chatting away describing various parts and what happens to them. We had a lot of "What does THAT do?" questions, and they answered them all with good grace and absolutely no dodging. Very accommodating.

Was a fascinating insight into an F1 constructor.

When I got back though I realised that the one photo I could have taken - of us all with the FIA Formula One World Constructor's Championship trophy - I missed. Oh well. I don't think I'll ever see that piece of bling up close again in my lifetime so 'll have to do my best to remember it!

Many thanks to the folks at Brackley, and Stephen for organising it. Jump at the chance if it comes up again in future.

**Stephen Green** · 31 Jul 2010, 21:11 (Ref:2736701)

Greem, many thanks for such a great write up and I am so glad you enjoyed the visit. It's worth mentioning that all tours are on the Friday of a race weekend as Ross Brawn's PA Nicole usually does the tours and that's the only day she gets where Ross doesn't need her services quite so much.

The STIG · 12 Sep 2010, 20:02 (Ref:2758304)

Just got back home from sunny Oxfordshire. Last Friday was a great experience and huge thanks to everyone at Mercedes Grand Prix and Stephen for making it possible. Nicole is a most excellent host and very knowledgeable, also for the kind of organisation that is renowned for being secretive we found the technicians welcoming and willing to answer any questions we had. It was a great insight into how modern Formula one cars are made, and certainly answered a few questions I had! a highlight was having a photo with the constructors trophy and seeing Jenson's championship winning car (back in it's brawn livery now and being lovingly looked after by a very friendly mechanic).

I will be writing to Nicole directly to thank her for her time and I would certainly recommend that anyone, even a non f1 fan like me, take the opportunity of a tour that has been most generously offered to us. Thanks to everyone once again.

Peter Scillitoe · 13 Sep 2010, 10:46 (Ref:2758627)

The STIG · 13 Sep 2010, 22:36 (Ref:2759013)

Ah... and it appears that I've met a fellow tenther or two without realising!

gary396 · 17 Sep 2010, 08:31 (Ref:2760776)

I'm down for the Nov visit - roughly what time do they start / finish? I presume we get an e-mail re details of exactly when to go etc etc in advance?

Thanks, Gary

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