As statements of intent go, Mercedes made one of the biggest in recent Formula 1 history by luring Lewis Hamilton from McLaren to spearhead their push for the sport's top honours from 2013.
With only one solitary victory to show for their return to F1 team ownership three seasons in, the Anglo-German outfit are desperate for success and are confident the arrival of Hamilton will coincide with a big step forward in form over the next few years.
But with the spectacular signing comes increased expectation and pressure to deliver. A significant improvement on a 2012 season that tailed off badly will be considered a prerequisite for Hamilton's first year at Brackley, but it's with the change of engine regulations in 2014 that Mercedes are expected to really, finally, flex their muscles.
Of course, most observers expected Mercedes, a proven race and title winner as an engine supplier with McLaren, to already be an F1 force long before now having bought newly-crowned double World Champions Brawn GP at the end of 2009.
The ingredients for immediate success seemed to be in place, with a manufacturer giant writing the cheques, a multiple championship-winning team boss in Ross Brawn in charge and the return of F1's most successful driver Michael Schumacher behind the wheel after a three-year hiatus.
But what will now be known as 'the Schumacher years' from 2010 to 2012 proved an undoubted let-down. With the seven-times World Champion, now in his forties, clearly not the force of old, Mercedes in any case failed to produce a car capable of challenging Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari race-in, race-out.
A first win for the German manufacturer as a team owner since 1955 did finally arrive - at the 41st attempt - in China, courtesy of a dominant Nico Rosberg. But that performance proved the glorious exception rather than the more mundane rule in 2012.
While the team's ingenious double DRS system provided much hope in the early races, the complex device proved more of a hindrance as the season wore on and Mercedes ended the year struggling to even score points. In fact Schumacher's seventh place on his second F1 swansong in Brazil was the only top-10 finish achieved by the team in the six races after Hamilton's arrival was announced.
Several weeks later, and after two decades at the helm of their motorsport division, Mercedes dispensed with Norbert Haug's services, with triple World Champion Niki Lauda having already taken on a senior role at the team as the go-between between the main board and Brackley F1 operation.
Having viewed his new team's plight from afar, Hamilton has ruled himself out a title challenge in 2013 but Brawn has expressed hope that race wins won't be out of the question for either the 2008 World Champion or Rosberg this coming season.
