Motivated by a belief and desire to succeed, Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher laid the foundation for AMG back in 1967. Boundless passion for motorsports paved the way for legendary achievements and continues to leave its mark on the spirit of our brand to the present day.
With currently eight consecutive Constructors’ and seven Drivers’ World Championships, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has an unparalleled track record in the pinnacle of motorsport. Headquartered in Brackley in the UK, the team builds on Mercedes-Benz’s heritage in racing: back in 1954 and 1955 already, the Silver Arrows were represented in Formula One and won the drivers’ crown with Juan Manuel Fangio in both years. In 2010, Mercedes-Benz returned to Formula One with its own works-team and ran under the Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team banner. Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were the driver pairing.
In 2012, the team competed for the first time with its current designation as “Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team”. The driver line-up remained unchanged while Rosberg secured the team’s maiden victory in the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix. Following Michael Schumacher’s retirement, Lewis Hamilton joined the team in 2013 and was crowned World Champion in 2014 while Rosberg was the year’s runner-up. With three rounds to spare, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team had already secured the FIA F1 Constructors’ World Championship for the first time. In 2015, the Drivers’ World Championship title again went to Lewis Hamilton while the team successfully defended its constructors’ title.
The next season, 2016, was one for the history books: the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team racked up a total of 765 points and secured 19 race wins and 20 pole positions from 21 races – F1 records that resulted into a repeated constructors’ title win. Nico Rosberg was crowned the World Champion and therefore became the third Silver Arrows champion in F1 history after Fangio and Hamilton.
After Nico Rosberg had stepped down, Valtteri Bottas became the new race driver alongside Lewis Hamilton in 2017. In spite of the revised line-up, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team remained on course for success: with Hamilton’s repeated title win in the World Drivers’ Championship, the Mission #4TheTeam, the fourth consecutive win of both F1 World Championships. In the following years, the impressive title-winning streak continued: both in 2018 and 2019, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team achieved the double with drivers’ and constructors’ championships. For Lewis Hamilton, these were his fifth and sixth Formula One titles.
The year 2020 presented the entire sport with huge challenges, but in a season that was extraordinary in many ways, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team remained successful: the team came out on top in the constructors’ standings while Lewis Hamilton again managed to defend his drivers’ title. Behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance, Valtteri Bottas became runner-up in the drivers’ standings.
In the Eifel Grand Prix, Lewis also scored his 91st F1 race win and thus matched Michael Schumacher’s record for the most race wins. In the Portuguese Grand Prix a fortnight later, Lewis again was the fastest driver in the field and has been the sole record holder ever since. With the strong achievements, the team improved its own F1 record: no other team in the sport’s 70-year history managed to score seven consecutive World Championship doubles.
For 2021, the records kept on coming for Lewis, and he also became the first driver to reach 100 wins and 100 pole positions in the sport’s history. Lewis finished second in the Drivers’ Championship, just missing out on the title to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after a hard-fought, season-long battle, and helped Mercedes to its eight consecutive Constructors’ title.
The 2022 season marks the dawn of a new era in Formula One, with changes that will pose enormous challenges for every single team member at the technology centres in Brackley and Brixworth. The revision of the Technical Regulations is the most radical in a generation. 18 months of hard work have culminated in the unveiling of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance, a car that is 98% new and designed from the ground up, with minimal areas carried over from its predecessor. Driving the two W13s this season will be F1’s most successful driver, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, and his fellow Brit and graduate of the Mercedes-AMG Junior programme George Russell, who is making his debut for the Mercedes-AMG works team.
Vehicles from Mercedes-AMG have been improving safety at Grands Prix since 1996, firstly with the Official FIA F1 Safety Car® which leads the Formula One field in bad weather or when there's an incident and then with the Official FIA F1 Medical Car® which can immediately reach the scene of an accident.
The safety car with the three-pointed star has been a constant feature for 26 years now, and during that time, high-performance models, including the Mercedes-Benz CL 55 AMG, the Mercedes-Benz C 36 AMG and the spectacular SLS AMG gullwing specially developed by Mercedes-AMG, have all been utilised.
The 2022 F1 season is now set to mark a premiere when the Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series (fuel consumption combined: 12.8 l/100 km, CO2 emissions combined: 292 g/km) leads the field as the safety car. At the same time, the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4MATIC+ (fuel consumption combined: 13.5-13.0 l/100 km, CO2 emissions combined: 308-295 g/km) will make its debut as the medical car. These two F1 safety vehicles about to be deployed this season will be the most powerful ever used and will sport the same distinctive red livery as last year.
Since 2010, customer racing has also been contributing significantly to Mercedes-AMG Motorsport’s achievements at circuits all over the world. Under the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing banner, customer teams all over the world are getting support in terms of technology and know-how. The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 marked the start of this era, already causing worldwide excitement in its first full season in 2011 and becoming the best newcomer in motorsport.
With the Mercedes-AMG GT3, Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing opened a new chapter in 2016. The Mercedes-AMG GT3's easy driveability coupled with its high agility, efficiency and safety opened up new performance dimensions for the teams. With the historic quadruple victory at the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, the greatest single success to date in the history of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing was achieved in its debut year.
With the presentation of the successor model, the course was set for the future in 2019. The new Mercedes-AMG GT3 had its official premiere at the start of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing’s tenth anniversary season during the 24-hour race in Dubai in January 2020.
Since 2018, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 has been serving as an extension of the customer racing portfolio, providing a perfect entry into the fascinating world of GT racing. The production-based GT4 concept combines matured competition technology with the highest levels of safety, durability, efficiency and user-friendliness. Presented in 2022, the optimised version of the successful model is setting new benchmarks in the GT4 category with a new performance level and more sustainable production processes.
Brilliant victories in sprint and endurance races as well as numerous international championship titles in the GT segment mark the success story of the Mercedes-AMG customer sports programme, including the “Grand Slam” with overall wins in all the major GT3 endurance racing classics in 2016, the historic quadruple victory in the Nürburgring 24-hour race in 2016, the FIA GT World Cup wins in 2015, 2017 and 2019 and the sensational 1-2 in the Daytona 24 Hours in 2021.
During the twelve-year history of the customer sports programme, the well over 400 race cars from the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach have racked up over 600 overall wins, over 300 class wins and almost 250 championship titles in around 7,500 starts in about 150 race series.
For the 2022 season, the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport programme again includes numerous high-class series and international motorsport classics.
The Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Programme
Behind the teams’ sporting success, a comprehensive programme has been put in place that, just like the cars, is subject to continuous development. The guiding principle is the quick and professional support for teams with the aim of contributing to the biggest possible joint success by means of technology, know-how and manpower.
