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My Story: Sir_ErikSalama from Porsche shareholder to Mercedes Team Owner

10.01.2025 - Season 59 16.02.2025 is the day when i will officially give the keys of the Mercedes F1 team to someone else and that is the day when i will officially leave the Finnish team, but how did i become a team owner of Mercedes?

In 2017 i became a shareholder of Porsche which transitioned from the ashes of then British owned team Mercedes which was ran by Braveheart. Braveheart tried to sell the team, but in the end gave shares to Kacinoman who tried to fix the damage Braveheart did, but in the end he gave the team power to Darac & Torbar, and that´s how Porsche was born

Porsche was able to build itself after a great leap forward lead by Darac & Torbar. Porsche quickly fixed all the issues what Braveheat had left and Porsche was able to become successful upper midfield team very quickly.

I was a shareholder of Porsche and it was best experience for me at that time in the game. Small team ran by few individuals taking on the giants of this game and trying to become something.

I left the team in season 33 or 34 but by that time Porsche was a serious contender to fight against Red Bull & McLaren

My biggest regret to this day was to leave Porsche as i had made good friends from that team and when i left all of those connections and managers i had net dissapeared with it.

But after Porsche time i stumbled a bit and just focused on my own driver, until in season 42 when i got shares in the Finnish team Williams ran by Petu and Tracker.

In season 43 i helped Williams on signing 2 drivers to the team and organized some private series championships for fans and to all managers of this game. Then in season 44 when Petu quit the game, he gave power of the team to Tracker, who needed an assistant. He asked me to do it and i said yes

During seasons 44-46 i was just doing basic switch employees for races and return them after races and did some private championships for our fans

Seasons 47-50: Tracker´s schedule started to be very busy so he taught me how to run the team and i started negotiating driver contracts, doing day to day operations and when he gave me permission to run the team as you see it as an assistant, i took off.

My first plan was to get our fanbase numbers from 17 to 30, and after i started my plan free superlicense to new fans program, we reached 70 fans by season 50. Then in season 50 day 72 Tracker made me Team manager of Williams, and then i changed the name to Mercedes.

Reason for the change was that i wanted Mercedes to be a new beginning, new project, one what i started, and now continuation of old managers who ran the team

Now my story ends either with 4th place on constructors or 3rd, anyways it´s good to way to end my time as team manager.

Good luck to you all and i wish this team all the success in the future

Team Manager

Mercedes West

Sir_ErikSalama