Anger over Mercedes F1 plant: 'It's disrespectful, we didn't know anything'

In 2023, Mercedes' Formula 1 team announced plans to expand its Brackley plant campus in a big way. Team boss Toto Wolff even spoke of a "Silicon Valley-like village". However, this plan is meeting strong opposition from local businesses, who expect the expansion to have a negative impact on them.

Mercedes meets resistance in Brackley

One of the things that is meeting resistance from local business owners is Mercedes' plan to use a small industrial road as the main access road to the F1 campus. The municipality estimates that this will increase the number of cars on the road tenfold during the morning rush hour.

Many companies are located along this road. They do not see anything at all in Mercedes' plans and say they were not informed about the proposed use of the road. "Everyone is furious at the idea that this is going to happen. At the moment, we all have free access, which means we have no problems getting staff or commercial vehicles in," explains a local businessman to the Northampton Chronicle.

He continued: "When you have hundreds of cars in the early morning and late at night trying to enter and exit the premises, it becomes complete chaos. Our customers, our suppliers and our employees would suddenly have to leave home earlier to avoid being caught in the traffic of others."

The entrepreneur adds that the smaller businesses located on the road are clearly not being looked after. "It is a case of 'we are Mercedes and we do what we want, just accept it'. That's just very disrespectful to businesses that have been here as long as they have."

Other local entrepreneurs join the criticism and feel powerless. "We can't really do much, it's a powerful company. We just don't understand why it has to go this way when they can reorganise it in such a way that no one is affected," says one. Another adds, "We didn't know about anything. If it didn't have a big impact on us, we wouldn't mind, but we don't even know that either."

Mercedes' plans

Mercedes has grand plans for the new campus and says it has gone through all the procedures properly. "In addition, we have consulted extensively with both the local roads authority and the National Highways Agency, who have checked and verified our independent traffic studies," says a spokesperson for the F1 team.

In addition, Mercedes says it has consulted with local emergency services, with whom a plan would have been agreed. These plans would include road improvements to ensure that anyone in an emergency could easily get away from St James Road, the access road in question.

"The concerns raised by the specialist roads consultant employed by one of the local companies have been studied to ensure that the proposed works have the least possible impact on businesses," he said. This approach has been agreed with the local Highways team," Mercedes adds. In addition, the team says it will carry out work on local roads to facilitate traffic flows.

"As a major employer in Brackley, we always strive to maintain a good relationship and dialogue with our stakeholders and to maximise our positive impact on the local environment. We will continue to do the same during this process," Mercedes said.