An F1-Powered Hypercar Like The Mercedes-AMG ONE Will Never Happen Again

Jan. 20, 2023 8:20 AM ET bySebastian Cenizo Supercars /3 Comments

AMG thinks nobody else will try what it has, and Mercedes itself will never undertake the mammoth task again. But not because it's too difficult...

Mercedes-AMG Director of Vehicle Development Steffen Jastrow says that an F1-powered hypercar like theAMG ONEwill never happen again. And he believes that this assessment applies to all brands, not just AMG. Speaking to the Australian publicationcarsalesat the local launch ofthe latest C 63 sedan, the development boss reiterated just how difficult it was to build the ONE.

"It's the most special car we [have] ever realized with AMG and our partners from Formula 1," said Jastrow. "I think that's the one-timer, and it was hard enough [to build], and I was responsible for that car. I think no, there will be no successor. Not in the definition we have right now."

A successor has been teased in the past, but it would almost certainly be electric and will definitely avoid the use of an F1 engine.

Mercedes-AMG

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius joked last year that the board of directorsmust have been drunkwhen they agreed to develop the AMG ONE. The course of development had to be altered midway through the project so that the vehicle would comply with emissions regulations, the rev limit had to be dropped to make the engine last long enough so as not to be frustrating to use, and even getting the highly strung 1.6-liter turbo V6 to idle at a reasonable level was a nightmare. Despite all these headaches and more, AMG is still interested in a successor to the ONE someday, but never again with the engine from an F1 car.

In response to questions about what shape this may take, Jastrow said: "I think Euro 7 regulations, that's definitely finished [the ability] to bring a combustion-based powertrain from Formula 1 through street-legal emission certification. Yeah, I would say in a [fully] electric world, it's easier to certify a hypercar."

Sorry, but it seems that any future AMG hypercar will be electric.

Mercedes-Benz

“我不会说我们永远不会有一个新的超级跑车,but there are no plans for that yet. But I think a hypercar based on the Formula 1 powertrain? I think that's no chance," said Jastrow, adding, "I think if you want to have, in the future, somebody, not just AMG or Mercedes, who can bring a Formula 1 engine to a production car, I think this is the one time - the one moment we've chosen to do that."

The AMG ONE took over five years to perfect, and as we touched on earlier, emissions regulations could have killed the project. Withthese regulations only getting stricter, Jastrow feels that there will never be another time in history when such a mammoth undertaking would even be legal, let alone profitable, which the AMG ONE almost certainly was not. That makes another F1-powered street car implausible from any manufacturer.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-AMG

In anearlier discussion with the same publication, Mercedes-AMG Chief Technical Officer Jochen Hermann said that the challenges of the ONE had "not killed the appetite for another AMG hypercar."

"We're really excited we did this car; it really pushed us as a company; it pushed us as a brand. We really learned so much, and the result is a technical miracle," said Hermann.

But whatever comes next, it certainly won't have an F1 engine.

"This is the most complex powertrain anybody can think of. I can tell you for one, 100%, Mercedes will never ever do another Formula 1 street-legal car, and I'm sure our rivals will come to the same conclusion."

The AMG ONE will forever be one of a kind. Even whenits astonishing lap recordsare eventually beaten, AMG will always be remembered as the one outfit that made the most difficult and prestigious of tasks a reality.