High Marks For Mercedes' New Formula One Lineup

While Mercedes Grand Prix may have failed to retain reigning world champion Jenson Button, the engine supplier can still call the Brit a part of its team.

As most of the motorsport world already knows, Button has signed a multi-year deal with McLaren, to partner with 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton in its lineup.

For years, McLaren has been the flagship Mercedes team; following two years with Sauber in 1993 and 1994, they began supplying engines to the Woking-based outfit in 1995. McLaren-Mercedes has won three drivers' championships and one constructors' championship since the beginning of the partnership.

Despite its purchase of the former Brawn GP and conversion to a works team, however, Mercedes will maintain the partnership with McLaren through at least 2015. This means that the engine company will also continue its relationships with Button and Hamilton for as long as they remain with McLaren; Button has a multi-year deal, while Hamilton has been affiliated with McLaren for over ten years, with no end in sight.

Losing Button from its works team is certainly a disappointment, but the move actually creates a more ideal situation for Mercedes. With Button and Hamilton under contract to McLaren, they can still lay claim to the two most recent world champions, but don't have to pay the exorbitant salaries that come with drivers of that caliber.

It also means that Mercedes will not directly have to deal with Button and Hamilton if their combination blows up, a la Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in 2007.

Finally, it frees up the works team to hire two German drivers - widely speculated to be Nico Rosberg, formerly of Williams, and Nick Heidfeld, last of the Sauber team whose 2010 status is currently up in the air.

Rosberg placed seventh in points in 2009, and has commented that he would like to move to a winning team; with most key personnel retained from its brief life as Brawn GP, it seems a fair guess that the Mercedes will be capable of winning. Heidfeld is a career journeyman who has seen better days, and, like Rosberg, has never won a Formula One race, but is by no means a bad driver.

This all-German team gives Mercedes claim to two of the best German open-wheel racers in the world, something they never had with McLaren, which has generally employed Finnish or British drivers over the past few years (with some notable exceptions). The only German-speaking driver to race for McLaren since 1995 is Alexander Wurz, who hails from Austria.

If all goes well, it also provides Mercedes with a means to attract Sebastien Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg to their team in the future. Vettel's contract with Red Bull is up after 2011, and Hulkenberg has been Williams' test driver since 2008, meaning that only strong showings over the next couple of years will lure the country's two best young talents to the German manufacturer.

2010 will be an interesting year (to say the least) for Mercedes, with the potential for both Cinderella-esque success and miserable failure on both teams. But regardless of their actual performance come next season, these four drivers give Mercedes the best lineup of any engine manufacturer in the sport.