Teenager gets Mercedes hand

If you don't ask, you don't get. Meet this philosophy's latest champion - 14-year-old F1 fan, Matthew James.

He was born without his left hand, so he wrote to F1 Mercedes GP Petronas boss, Ross Brawn, asking for £35,000 to pay for a top-of-the range artificial one. In exchange, he offered F1-style sponsorship on the customised i-LIMB Pulse - one of the most advanced bionic hands in the world.

Brawn says: "Matthew's letter to the team was very touching. Looking closely at the i-LIMB Pulse, we realised how much our technologies in Formula One had in common with those used to create this cutting-edge prosthetic limb."

James, who lives with his parents in Berkshire, says: "It is just amazing. My old artificial hand had a pretty basic open-close mechanism similar to a clamp, but with this one I can do everything.

"It also looks really cool - the outer-shell is see-through so you can actually see the mechanics working. They are even going to put a little Mercedes badge by the wrist."

The i-LIMB Pulse is a pretty trick piece of kit - Each finger's powered by an individual motor, which means it's dexterous enough to grip a pen and write, tie shoe laces and even catch a ball.

It works by receiving information from two electrodes in the socket that detect electrical impulses made by the muscles in Matthew's lower arm. The whole thing's fitted with Bluetooth too, so Matthew can hook it up to a computer wirelessly and track the strength and speed of his movements.