Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains
Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains is a British Formula One engine manufacturer, owned by Mercedes-Benz. The company supplied Sauber during the season, McLaren from to, Force India from to, Brawn in, the Mercedes factory team since, Williams since, Lotus in, Manor Racing in, Racing Point Force India in and Racing Point since. Their engines have won eight Formula One Constructors' Championships and ten Drivers' Championships.
Background
was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in 1983, as an independent British Formula One engine manufacturer. The company name was taken from the surnames of the founders. It originally started building engines for IndyCars with the money of IndyCar team owner and chassis manufacturer Roger Penske.Daimler-Benz acquired General Motors' 25% share of Ilmor in 1993. In 2002, Daimler AG increased its share to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. In 2005, Daimler became the sole owner of Ilmor and renamed the company first to Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, then to Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines. In December 2011, the company was renamed to Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains along with the renaming of Mercedes GP to incorporate the Mercedes-AMG brand.
At the same time, the small Special Projects part of the company, which between 2003 and 2005 had been contracted to co-develop, arrangement, preparation and tune up Honda's IndyCar Series engines until 2011, split away to become a separate company, owned by Mario Illien and Roger Penske. This new company, which is totally independent of Mercedes, is once again known as Ilmor Engineering Ltd.
History
In 1991, Ilmor entered Formula One as the engine supplier to the Leyton House team. In 1992, Leyton House changed its name back to March and continued using Ilmor engines. Ilmor also delivered engines to Tyrrell Racing in that year. Powered by an Ilmor V10, Tyrrell scored 8 points, and March 3 points.Ilmor already had a good name in F1, and so the Sauber sportscar-team and Mercedes-Benz that were planning their Formula One entrance together signed a deal with Ilmor to produce racing engines for them. However, Mercedes stepped back from the project with the engines only carrying the slogan "Concept by Mercedes-Benz" and the engines were officially called "Saubers".
However, after an unexpectedly fast performance in 1993, Sauber convinced Mercedes to enter officially in 1994. In 1994, Ilmor also supplied the new Pacific GP team of Keith Wiggins with the old 1993 spec engines. Pacific only managed to qualify seven times in thirty-two attempts, although the engine was not implicated in this poor display.
is a former Mercedes engine user.
Ilmor became the engine partner to McLaren in 1995. The partnership took its first win at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. Mika Häkkinen picked up Drivers' Championships in and, and the team won the Constructors' Championship in 1998. After a winless season, McLaren bounced back and won the Drivers' Championship in with Lewis Hamilton.
In 2001, Paul Morgan was killed whilst landing his vintage aeroplane at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire. This led to Mercedes-Benz increasing their financial involvement in Ilmor, with the company being renamed Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd.
The new Formula One regulations in 2014 saw Mercedes produce a hybrid 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine, which features both a kinetic energy recovery system and a heat energy recovery system. The Mercedes engine started the season with a clear advantage, with Mercedes-engined cars scoring the majority of the points. Since the introduction of the new engine formula, there have only been 26 occasions where a car with a non-Mercedes power unit achieved pole position. Similarly, as of the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix, Mercedes-powered cars have won 92 out of 124 races during this period.
In March 2020, in light of the delayed seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and working with UCL Mechanical Engineering and Institute of Healthcare Engineering, Mercedes HPP announced that they would be making breathing aids to help keep patients out of intensive care. Mercedes HPP created this device within a week. On the first day of production, Mercedes HPP manufactured 600 Continuous Positive Airway Pressure devices, with plans to increase this to 1,000 devices per day. These devices are being produced on machines that typically manufacture pistons and turbochargers for Formula 1 engines.
Formula One engine results
| Constructor | Season | Total wins | First win | Last win | ||
 Sauber | 0 | – | – | |||
 McLaren | – | 78 | 1 | 3 | 1997 Australian Grand Prix | 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Brawn | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2009 Australian Grand Prix | 2009 Italian Grand Prix | |
 Force India | – | 0 | – | – | ||
 Mercedes | – | 6 | 6 | 2012 Chinese Grand Prix | 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix | |
| Williams | – | – | – | |||
| Lotus | 0 | – | – | |||
| MRT | 0 | – | – | |||
| Racing Point Force India | 0 | – | – | |||
| Racing Point | – | – | – | |||
| Total | – | 8 | 10 | 1997 Australian Grand Prix | 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix |