The Daimler-Chrysler company, owners of McLaren engine supplier Mercedes, has bought into the Woking-based race team to further increase the amount of manufacturer support on the Formula One grid.



The company is understood to have taken up an option - agreed at last year's British Grand Prix - to buy a forty per cent share in the TAG McLaren Group, a deal which gives it an interest in more than just the F1 operation. As of January this year, Daimler Chrysler becomes the largest major shareholder in the Group, with Ron Dennis and the TAG Group SA owning thirty per cent each. The TAG Group remains in operational management control of the company.



Mercedes and McLaren have not only moved into their sixth year of competition together in 2000, but are also involved in the design and production of the new SLR road car. The 'racer for the road' is due to appear in 2003, following a joint investment by the two parties, and the completion of the build programme at the new TAG McLaren Group headquarters, Paragon, near Woking.



The deal is not thought likely to alter the way the successful McLaren team is run, not have any dramatic effect on the name under which it runs in the F1 world championship.



"This is an historic milestone in the further development of the TAG McLaren Group," said chairman and CEO Dennis, "The equity participation of Daimler Chrysler will further strengthen TAG McLaren, and it will also permit an even closer co-operation between TAG McLaren and Daimler Chrysler, which will make even greater use of the synergies that exist to the benefit of all shareholders and employees of the Group."



"The investment in TAG McLaren is the result of our increasingly close, and mutually beneficial, co-operation in Formula One and other areas," agreed Daimler Chrysler board member Jurgen Hubbert, "It forms a part of Daimler Chrysler's long-term strategy of maintaining Mercedes-Benz's leadership in engineering performance, technological edge and brand image, in the face of increasingly stiff competition. It also ties in with the other key strategic orientation toward developing the sporting accents of the Mercedes-Benz brand, initiated with the decision to acquire a majority interest in AMG."