Mercedes ushers in space age upgrade of race bays

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Mercedes is updating some key facilities at its Brackley headquarters with a space age refurbishment of its race bays at the heart of the operation.

The existing race bays had started to look a little second hand, having been in place ever since 1999 when the team was known as British American Racing.

After that the squad was bought out by Honda and operating as a works team until 2008 when the Japanese manufacturer made the shock decision to quit the sport.

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Team principal Ross Brawn kept the doors open for the next season - and went on to win that year's driver and team titles with Jenson Button.

Since its sale to Mercedes, the team had gone on to new heights in the sport with seven consecutive team and drier championships since 2014.

In total, the cars built in the existing race bays have gone on to score 115 wins and 57 one-two victories among 253 podiums, as well as clinching 126 pole positions and setting 79 fastest laps.

But Formula 1 is no place for sentiment, and these existing race bays will now be ripped out and replaced by brand new state-of-the-art facilities over the next few weeks.

"These race bays have seen it all over the years," the team posted on Twitter along with an emoji for a round of applause.

"From the euphoric highs, to the deepest lows, to the moments of hope and the moments of head-scratching and 'where-do-we-go-from-here?'" the post continued.

"But as a wise person once said ‘If you’re not moving forward, you’re falling back!’ As one chapter in the Team’s history comes to an end, a new and exciting one starts.

The team attached digital renditions of what the new facilities should look like when the installation is complete.

The upgrade is being squeezed into the time while work on the new car is being completed, before it's shipped off to Bahrain for three days of pre-seson testing in Bahrain.

Time will tell whether the new setting will be the background for another iconic photograph at the end of the season celebrating more championship success.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.