FRANKFURT (AP) -Mercedes-Benz is taking over champion team Brawn GP to return to Formula One racing under its own name for the first time in 55 years.

At the same time, Mercedes plans to sell its stake in McLaren, although a partnership with the British team since the mid-1990s will continue with it supplying engines until 2015.

While some leading car makers have pulled out of the sport at the time of the economic downturn, such as Honda, Toyota and BMW, Mercedes was looking to enhance its brand name.

``Mercedes-Benz is the most valued and best-known premium automotive brand in the world. This brand looks for competition of the utmost quality in all relevant fields in order to continually improve its performance in the face of such new challenges,'' said Dieter Zetsche, the CEO of parent company Daimler AG.

``We will face the competition in future on the most important motor sports stage with our own Silver Arrow works team. Our new Silver Arrow Formula 1 team is a great sporting and technical challenge and we will tackle this with sporting spirit and full of enthusiasm,'' Zetsche said during a conference call Monday during which he announced the move.

Mercedes raced under its own name, with drivers such as Juan Manuel Fangio spreading the fame of the Silver Arrows, until one of its cars plunged into the crowd at Le Mans and killed more than 80 people in 1955, causing Mercedes to pull out.

It returned in the early 1990s and then formed its partnership with McLaren in 1995, becoming the second most successful Formula One team after Ferrari.

``We look back on 15 successful years of great collaboration with McLaren. In that time, we won four world championship titles and finished 10 times as runner-up in the drivers' and constructors' rankings,'' said Norbert Haug, vice president of Mercedes Benz motorsport.

Brawn GP, which took over from Honda when it pulled out from the sport in March, had a spectacular first season - with Jenson Button winning the 2009 drivers' title and the team taking the constructors' championship.

Team chief Ross Brawn had only spent one full season with Honda, in charge of the team's 2008 campaign after 10 years with Ferrari. He will remain at Mercedes Grand Prix, although Haug is expected to be the team's coordinator with Mercedes.

Button was partnered this year with Rubens Barrichello, who is moving to Williams next season.

McLaren's drivers were 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.

The decision on the two drivers for the new Mercedes GP team ``will still take come time,'' Haug. ``We have to consider this carefully.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.