It’s taken a full year to design and develop, but in the new MGP WO2 the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team are convinced they have a car that will propel them to the front of the F1™ pack.

With seven times World Drivers’ Champion Michael Schumacher and the hugely talented Nico Rosberg in the hot seats, fans of the Mercedes-Benz works team are relishing the prospect of seeing the legendary Silver Arrows back where they belong – winning races and topping podiums.

Having laid down solid foundations in 2010, when they competed as the first Mercedes-Benz works outfit since 1955, Team Principal Ross Brawn and his colleagues are targeting a return to the winning ways that saw them lift the 2009 World Constructors’ Championship and Brit Jenson Button take the Drivers’ honours.

That was Ross Brawn’s eighth Constructors’ title. Despite his many achievements, the thrill of bringing a new car to the track shows no sign of diminishing for the quietly-spoken Englishman, who was awarded an OBE for his services to motorsport in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List.

“After our first year as the Mercedes-Benz works team we are now seeing the benefits of our chassis and engine groups working well together,” he confirmed. “We have two excellent drivers in Michael and Nico, both of whom are capable of winning races in a good car, and we look forward to seeing them push each other and the development of the new Silver Arrow during the season.”

Schumacher, who was coaxed out of retirement by the prospect of renewing an association with Mercedes-Benz that began more than 20 years earlier as a member of the junior racing programme, is optimistic about his chances in the season ahead.

“Finally the waiting is over and things get started,” he declared. “We have said it several times already but we are really building up to something big together. I am very confident that this season we will be standing on the podium much more regularly, and ideally in the middle!”

Few who have followed the illustrious careers of Brawn and Schumacher, and who have witnessed the as yet unfulfilled promise of the young Rosberg, would be prepared to bet against them.