It took more than one hundred races but finally the talent he's promised for so long has been fulfilled. Nico Rosberg is a Grand Prix winner, even if it is a little strange to listen to the German national anthem in celebration.

While I'm happy for Nico, another of the paddock's more popular residents, I tend to disagree with the assertion the result is the first Mercedes win since Juan-Manuel Fangio. The Argentine's Italian Grand Prix winning W196 from 1955 was built in Germany while Rosberg's W03 was built in Brackley, England. While the office location is a clue, it's far from the whole picture.

Mercedes originally withdrawal from motor racing at the end of 1955 is well documented, however its return to Formula One is less so.

In 1993 a young Swiss team joined the grid. Its black challenger featuring a three-pointed star on the engine cover, which Peter Sauber can no longer remember if he paid for or not. It was an Ilmor engine branded as a Mercedes in the same way McLaren won the 1984 championship with a Porsche engine called a TAG. As the years have rolled by the German car company has taken the engine building in-house, while supplying the likes of McLaren and Force India.

Mercedes return as a 'factory' team to the sport follows the Ilmor trend. Buying Brawn GP at the end of 2009 the white car was effectively painted silver and called a Mercedes. That is the bone of my contention.

The Mercedes name has returned to Formula One, and Mercedes may be paying the bills, but it is not the Mercedes that Fangio and Stirling Moss drove for in the 1950's. The current Mercedes team is Brawn GP painted silver.

Following that thread a little further Mercedes must therefore be Honda, which itself grew from British American Racing, while the foundations of that outfit were Tyrrell Grand Prix, a team which did have a tradition of excellence.

All of this takes me back to a conversation in March in the Albert Park paddock. A few media types huddled around a table while Peter Sauber did his best to answer our questions. One of those enquired about statistics, and the rights a team has to its heritage. Sauber has a race win, albeit under the BMW banner, which Peter Sauber believes is Sauber's, as an entity, and not BMW's, as a team.

It's an interesting point which suggests that when buying a Formula One team, one not only gets the bricks and mortar, but the heritage, if one wishes.