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Mercedes-Benz has bought a majority stake in Formula One team Brawn GP in a move that will have wide-ranging implications for sponsorship deals and driver line-ups.

The German car giant has bought 75.1 per cent of a team that was only launched at the start of the year after a management buyout from Honda, but which went on to win the world championship (both drivers and constructors) in its first season.

Mercedes will sell its 40 per cent stake in McLaren back to the British team over the next two years but will continue to supply engines to the team, which is likely to keep the name Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

Brawn will be rebranded as Mercedes GP and Ross Brawn will continue as team principal. The move will, however, increase speculation that world champion Jenson Button will leave the team – with McLaren his likely destination – and that Mercedes will go for an all-German driver line up of Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld.

“Mercedes will compete in the F1 world championship next year starting with its own factory team,” confirmed head of Mercedes cars, Dr Dieter Zetsche. Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Norbert Haug will have overall responsibility for the
new team.

Ross Brawn and chief executive Nick Fry will retain a 24.9% shareholding, while the remaining 75.1 per cent will be split between Mercedes, which will own 45.1 per cent, and Abu Dhabi company Aabar Investments, which will own 30%.

Ross Brawn said: “Brawn GP has been through an incredible journey over the last 12 months. From fighting for our survival to forging a strong relationship with Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines [to supply the team’s engines for the 2009 season], winning both the constructors’ and drivers’ world championships, and now accepting Daimler and Aabar's offer to buy our team, which will secure its future.”

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group sponsored Brawn in its debut season but had already been tipped to back one of the new teams entering F1 next year. The Mercedes deal is likely to result in a raft of new sponsors for the team.

Meanwhile, an all-British driver line-up of Button and Lewis Hamilton would provide some lucrative marketing opportunities for title sponsor and British mobile phone giant Vodafone.

McLaren and Mercedes said one of the reasons for the split was McLaren’s road-car building ambitions. McLaren is launching a high-performance sports car called the MP4-12C in 2011.
Mercedes’ great rival BMW announced that it would be quitting Formula One at the end of the 2009 season.