Two names springs to mind ,Uhlenhuat and Waxenburger . Both were very competent Drivers with race and rally success to their names and both were directly responsible for the development of the W111 Chassis cars using the resources available to them. After WW2 Daimler Benz was a bombed out shell of it's former self and these two guys (Uhlenhuat was actually british born) saw to it that the company was able to build itself up by using the best ideas they could afford to incorporate without spending itself into oblivion.
The chassis design was better than anything else at the time being both tough and competant when driven hard as shown by wins in Rallyes .
Waxenburger showed this by beating the times of a new Ferrari around the 'ring with a 230SL and winning the Macao grandprix event with a stock 6.3.
Uhlenhaut could do a lap quicker than Sir Stirling Moss and demonstrated this after a team of drivers complained of ill handling.