Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[WhiteBlue]

The corporate structure is in reality very simple. Norbert Haug is a vice president of Daimler AG where he is responsible for all motor sport activities of the corporation. He reports directly to Dieter Zetsche. He joined the predecessor Daimler-Benz AG in 1990 in the same function as head of motor sport activities. At that time he did not hold the title of a vice president of the parent corporation though.

Norbert has two UK companies reporting directly to him. The engine and hybrid drive company Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains Ltd. in Brixworth and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team in Brackley. Beside the UK companies a number of German departments and projects also report to Haug in his function as a Daimler executive board member and VP.

The only significant anomaly in the hierarchy is Ross Brawn. He is the team principal with regard to the F1 legal structures at the FiA, FOTA and FOM and a significant share holder of the team company. He isn't reporting directly to Haug AFAIK in many of these roles. They are both board members of the team. Norbert and other board members exercise the voting power of Daimler AG and Aabar in the team board meetings. So on this level there is a cooperative and not a reporting structure in place. Due to the share representation of Brawn, Daimler and Aabar you can be sure that any discrepancy in strategy or policy will be resolved according to the Daimler view. You can also assume with some certainty that Daimler have a water tight option on the Brawn shares when he retires from the company.

All employees of the two British companies will have appropriate reporting structures and responsibilities according to UK company law.

[xpensive]

Haug could possibly be responsible for all of Mercedes sporting activities.
Since 1987.

It's not about know how, as always it's about know who, but what does being responsible formean...that's not xactly a title, is it now?

[WhiteBlue]

Haug could possibly be responsible for all of Mercedes sporting activities.
Since 1987.

It's not about know how, as always it's about know who, but what does being responsible formean...that's not xactly a title, is it now?

I think the responsibilities, the reporting and the corporate structures of the companies involved are comprehensively detailed in by post above.

[xpensive]

If you ask me, everyone within every activity is "responsible", but that does not make it a formally accountable position.

[WhiteBlue]

If you ask me, everyone within every activity is "responsible", but that does not make it a formally accountable position.

That is a broad statement. How does it relate to the topic and the Mercedes corporate and team hierarchy?

[Maelstrom]

So the one who'll be working to fix the tyre situation will be Aldo Costa then?

[xpensive]

If you ask me, everyone within every activity is "responsible", but that does not make it a formally accountable position.

That is a broad statement. How does it relate to the topic and the Mercedes corporate and team hierarchy?

I believe the relevance to the topic is pretty obvious.

[ArchAngel]

I believe it's quite obvious that, sporting achievements & corporate responsibilities notwithstanding, X doesn't hold Norbert & Ross in high regard, considering their lowly beginnings.

To be fair to Norbert, he's certainly a lot more useful to the organization than Nick Fry.

[xpensive]

More like I have problems with people who get their position strictly through connections, position in name only at that.

[Maelstrom]

More like I have problems with people who get their position strictly through connections, position in name only at that.

I hardly think Ross Brawn falls in that category.

[NewtonMeter]

Would you still have a problem with them if they then go on to do their job well, even though they got it by knowing someone?

Put it this way, would you rather have someone get a job by formal means and be less competent, or have someone get a job through connections and be more competent?

Think about it...

[Richard]

Haug is the corporate fixer, Brawn is the operational person.

[WhiteBlue]

Haug is the corporate fixer, Brawn is the operational person.

Haug's main job is to maximise brand exposure for the money that Mercedes and Daimler AG pump into motor sport.

He has been criticised a great deal when appr. $500m annually vanished into Ron Dennis's deep pockets without much of a return for the Mercedes brand which earned the money.

Switching the cash flow to Brawn and reducing expenditure by 60% was a risky manoeuvre that seems to be paying out only now. Until the Chinese GP Haug got a lot more ridicule for his risky strategy. With hindsight one can see that he isn't such a bad manager as expensive paints him.

[xpensive]

...
With hindsight one can see that he isn't such a bad manager as expensive paints him.

He's just no manager at all, he plays no managerial role whatsoever with MGP, as little as he did with McLaren.

Unless you regard standing in the pits with his cell as management?

[WhiteBlue]

...
With hindsight one can see that he isn't such a bad manager as expensive paints him.

He's just no manager at all, he plays no managerial role whatsoever with MGP, as little as he did with McLaren.

Unless you regard standing in the pits with his cell as management?

Perhaps you cannot or you do not want to understand that he manages the use of the the Daimler AG motor sport budget. We have been talking €200-450m per annum over more than a decade.

As I explained to you he has to answer the executive board and ultimately the shareholders for the purposeful use of those funds. This includes the structuring of the teams and projects he proposes to spend the money on. If you remember back in 1994 Haug pushed the decision to give Sauber F1 works engines only to see himself over ruled months later by Jürgen Hubbert switching the works deal to McLaren. At that time Haug wasn't a VP and Hubbert was running the Mercedes car group - the most powerful division of the corporation.

Hubbert's decision was not without internal criticism within Daimler AG over the years and Haug suffered some heavy criticism when BMW bought Sauber 2005 and made some good progress in the next three years. At that time Daimler poured billions into F1 for very little return. Most of the money ended up in Ron's Paragon silver palace.

The decision to stop waisting money on a minority share that could not be controlled by Daimler is 100% Haugs brain child. He did some quick thinking on his feet when he gave Brawn the engines in winter 2008/2009. This created the option to switch from McLaren to Brawn for good.

IMO Haug has done an excellent job to recover a situation that had been effed up by other parties. I'm very confident that the venture will pay back massively in the near future for Daimler in terms of brand exposure. In my view he is an excellent manager who has proven his value not only in budget management but also in project, program and Merger & Aquisition management. Those are truly difficult fields to master as anybody who has done it will testify to.