Mercedes committed to F1 after Honda exit news

Oct.7 (GMM) Mercedes has reiterated its commitment to Formula 1, allaying fears that the sport may be about to lose more teams or manufacturers.

Honda – Red Bull’s works engine partner – stunned the F1 world last Friday by announcing its decision to quit.

And with other teams in obvious distress amid the covid crisis, and rumours of other manufacturers re-thinking their commitments, there had also been rumblings about the structure of Mercedes’ involvement going forward.

But at an investor and analyst conference on Tuesday, Mercedes’ parent Daimler rejected speculation it might pull out of Formula 1 by announcing its new corporate strategy.

“An exit from Formula 1 is off the table,” Auto Motor und Sport correspondent Tobias Gruner surmised afterwards.

Indeed, Daimler announced that amid a push to align its brands more closely with electrification, it would more prominently promote its performance AMG brand in F1 from 2021.

Damiler CEO Ola Kallenius used the example of the new Project One hypercar to prove that Formula 1’s hybrid engine technology is still relevant for Mercedes.

“We will use the technology we have developed in Formula 1 for performance hybrids and other exciting technologies in the future and put that into our AMG cars,” he said.

“With Project One we are taking a Formula 1 powertrain and putting it on the road, so it comes naturally to us to leverage Formula 1 even more for AMG going forward.”