Mercedes-Benz is poised to buy the McLaren team, according to German reports.

It is claimed that the German carmaker is set to up its existing stake in the Woking based squad from forty to up to seventy or eighty per cent, with Mercedes’ Norbert Haug to possibly take over from Ron Dennis at the helm.

Auto Bild Motorsport wrote that the Stuttgart-based manufacturer is dissatisfied with the silver collaboration’s lack of championship success since 1999, despite consistently delivering perhaps the biggest budget in pit lane.

The report also said that Mercedes, whose rumoured buyout would cost an estimated $380 million, is encouraged by BMW’s progress since its rival German carmaker took over Sauber.

A spokesman was quoted as saying that it is ‘no secret’ that parent company DaimlerChrysler could up its stake in McLaren.

“Whether this will happen,” the Mercedes-Benz spokesman added, “has not been decided.”

Major German newspaper Bild, however, quoted a source at the carmaker as saying: “Soon we will take over McLaren completely.”

[GMM]

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