It isn’t easy to put an F1 engine into a road-legal vehicle.
The Mercedes AMG One is a little behind schedule. The hypercar was revealed for the first time in 2017. Production was scheduled to begin in 2019. Although the original plan was delayed, we now have some good news from Affalterbach: The first examples of the hypercar will be delivered in 2021. This was announced by Michael Knoller (AMG’s global boss for product management and sales).
Knoller, who was at the Los Angeles Auto Show spoke with Road and Track and confirmed that customers will receive their cars starting in 2021. You have to travel with customers when F1 technology is made street-legal. Although there were some difficulties, we have now reached a tipping point.
What was the reason for the delay? There are many challenges when you try to convert a hypercar with an F1 engine into road-legal vehicles. Mercedes-AMG engineers had to make the race engine of 1.6-liters idle at civilized 1,200 RPM instead of the usual 5,000 RPM. This was one of the most difficult challenges. AMG’s current situation is clear when you consider emissions, noise regulations and the resulting noise levels.
Another problem is that F1 engines can’t be started by simply pressing a button. They require an external starter to start them up and oil must be heated up before they can fire up. It is possible to imagine that a 1.6-liter engine running at 15,000 rpm can be quite durable. This is another technical problem to consider.
Mercedes-AMG will only build 275 hypercars, each of which is already priced at $2.7million.