End-of-season party that relaunched Silver Arrows

Sports Car News

Behind the story of the Silver Arrows' return, plus Kenny Acheson reunited with a Sauber Mercedes C9

Kenny Acheson drives the Sauber C9

Lyndon McNeil

Mercedes’ campaign to win a seventh successive Formula 1 constructors’ championship begins in earnest tomorrow, with the first day of preseason testing.

But the hybrid era could have gone in a very different direction if it wasn’t for an alcohol-fuelled announcement at the German company’s end-of-season motor sport party in 1988.

From the archive

It led to the return of the Silver Arrows to the race track, 33 years after the 1955 Le Mans disaster. The team’s Sauber C9s won at Le Mans in 1989, and paved the way for the brand’s return to Formula 1.

Read the full story of the Silver Arrows’ comeback in the current issue of Motor Sport, where we also reunite Sauber C9 race-winner Kenny Acheson with one of the cars, 25 years since his last race.

Subscribers can click the link above to read both articles online.

View pictures by Lyndon McNeil from Acheson’s drive in the gallery below.