A superb and rare photo of the Mercedes garage at the 1954 Grand Prix of France, Shown at the start of the race is Juan Manuel Fangio would drive the W196R with number 18 and Karl Kling in the W196R with number 20. Both men drove the amazing fuel injected desmodromic Mercedes-Benz W196 R Formula One race car.

Interestingly, during this race, the new Mercedes-Benz W196 R (R for Reims!) debuted. And it also was Karl Kling’s debut in the Formula One! Fangio also would be the fastest in practice, shortly followed by Kling.

The Mercedes-Benz W196 was the Formula 1 entry of Mercedes-Benz in the 1954 Formula One season and 1955 Formula One season, winning 9 of 12 races at the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. Its delayed debut on the 1954 French Grand Prix brought the streamlined "Type Monza" body for the high speed track at Reims-Gueux (and later Monza), and scored a 1-2 victory with Fangio and Karl Kling plus a fastest lap with youngster Hans Herrmann. (SEE PHOTO!)

Another remarkable first was the use of Desmodromic valves and fuel injection, based on previous experience collected with the engines of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. As the streamlined body was not situable for twistier tracks, causing a defeat at its second race at Silverstone, a proper open-wheel-version was introduced at the Nürburgring. Fangio, who had already won the first two GPs of 1954 with a Maserati, won this and the two following GPs, securing his 2nd World Championship. In late October, at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix, the low-mounted Mercedes air-intake was clogged with leaves. The race was lost, and the air-intake moved to the top of the hood.

In the 1955 Formula One season, which was shortened after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, the Mercedes managed to win all but one race, the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix, were Hans Herrmann crashed in practice, and the other 3 cars did not finish. At his 1955 British Grand Prix home event, Stirling Moss finished 0.2 seconds ahead of Fangio for his first GP win. For sportscar races of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship season, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR was derived from it.

After winning all world championships it competed in, Mercedes withdrew from motorsport at the end of the 1955 season as a result of the 1955 Le Mans disaster.

Karl Kling was a motor racing driver and manager from Germany, who participated in 11 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on July 4, 1954. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 17 championship points. It is said, that he was born too late and too early. Too late to be in the successful Mercedes team of the '30s and too early to have a real chance in 1954 and 1955. Unusually, Kling found his way into motorsport via his first job as a reception clerk at Daimler-Benz in the mid-1930s, competing in hillclimb and trials events in production machinery in his spare time. During the Second World War he gained mechanical experience servicing Luftwaffe aircraft, and after the cessation of hostilities he resumed his motorsport involvement in a BMW 328. Kling was instrumental in developing Mercedes' return to international competition in the early 1950s, and his win in the 1952 Carrera Panamericana road race, driving the then-experimental Mercedes-Benz 300SL was a defining point in assuring the Daimler-Benz management that motorsport had a place in Mercedes' future. Called up to the revived Mercedes Grand Prix squad in 1954 he finished less than one second behind the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio on his Formula One debut, taking second place in the 1954 French Grand Prix at the fast Reims-Gueux circuit. This promising start was not to last, and with the arrival of Stirling Moss at Mercedes in 1955 Kling was effectively demoted to third driver. However, away from the World Championship, Kling took impressive victories in both the Berlin Grand Prix (at AVUS, another high-speed circuit) and the Swedish Grand Prix. He left the Formula One team at the end of the season, to succeed Alfred Neubauer as head of Mercedes motorsport. He was in this post during their successful rallying campaigns of the 1960s, occasionally taking the wheel himself. On one such occasion he drove a Mercedes-Benz 220SE to victory in the mighty 1961 Algiers-Cape Town trans-African rally.

This is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of Mercedes ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12" (ca. 20 x 30 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.