Ross Brawn and the new Mercedes F1 team have been told that they must win if they are to keep the support of parent company Daimler.

Mercedes, along with shareholder Aabar, took over the former Brawn GP team last year and since then it has gone on to create an all-German super team, with record-breaking multiple F1 world champion, Michael Schumacher having been tempted out of retirement to line-up alongside Nico Rosberg.

Now Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche has said in an interview with manager-magazin.com that winning is a “condition” of the project.

He also noted that if there are “clear signs” that Daimler’s money could be better used outside of F1, then “we’ll have to make a new decision”.

“The fact that Aabar came along with us as an investor not only shows that we are distributing our risk, it is also a signal that the F1 team must pay for itself. We take our guidance from Gottlieb Daimler, who said ‘The best, or nothing at all’,” Zetsche added.