twinkle_toes22: the scarlet assassin: I have been told that Mercedes have had preliminary talks (in the last month or so) with Toyota to buy their factory in Cologne. Only time will tell as to what will happen there.
I'm not sure that would make an awful lot of sense (but then what does these days!?) The engines are made in the UK at Ilmor so it'd be a bit daft to move everything over there and also to have to ship the engines over aswell. Unless of course that was part of the agreement with the worker representatives at Daimler .. more jobs for Germans, only any good if you actually have the people who are able to do the jobs in the first place though.
Ilmor would only have to supply a minimum of 16 engines, over a season, to the Cologne factory, and remain in the UK, because they will be supplying 2 other f1 teams, and the brains don't want to leave the area. A 7.5 ton truck could deliver the 16 engines for under £1500.
They appear to only want the factory and the inner workings of the chassis design and development, because it then makes it an all German based outfit. But, hey! Time will tell if this is all true, and whether they will have an extra special engine refinement department in Cologne.