Although Max Verstappen drove his racing car through the Dutch polder a few years ago, you are of course not allowed on the road with a normal Formula 1 car. Mercedes-AMG has now found a solution: the AMG One has about the same technology as Lewis Hamilton’s car, but is street legal. So you can just go to the supermarket with this super sports car.
Mercedes-AMG has been working on the One for many years, which was already shown as a study model in 2017. It turned out not to be very easy to develop a car that has Formula 1 technology, but which is also usable and reliable on public roads. So now the time has come: the Mercedes-AMG One is ready to go into production, just in time for the 55th anniversary of the sporty AMG division.
The Mercedes-AMG One is perhaps the most absurd car that Mercedes-Benz has presented in recent years. Let the ingredients of the AMG One sink in: this is a plug-in hybrid hypercar with a 1.6-liter V6, four electric motors and a system power of 1063 hp. The powertrain was developed with the team that also screw together the engines in the race cars of Mercedes’ Formula 1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russel.
The small V6 engine of the Mercedes-AMG One is a derivative of the power unit of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W07 Hybrid, the Formula 1 car with which Nico Rosberg became world champion in 2016. For such an extremely fast and powerful car, this is a remarkably small engine, which according to Mercedes-AMG can run extremely high. The maximum power of the petrol engine (574 hp) is only released at 9000 revolutions per minute and the limiter only kicks in at 11,000 rpm. That limit is high, but to guarantee a longer lifespan of the engine, it is considerably less than the speed limit of an F1 car.
Also completely electric
That 1.6 behind the front seats gets help from no less than four electric motors. The AMG One has a 163 hp electric motor on the crankshaft of the combustion engine, two electric motors on the front axle that together deliver 326 hp and an electric exhaust gas turbo that is good for 122 hp. In total, the system power is 1063 hp.
The AMG One has an automated seven-speed manual transmission that transfers the power to the rear wheels. The 4.76 meters long, 2.01 meters wide and only 1.26 meters high Mercedes-AMG weighs 1695 kilos thanks to the extensive use of lightweight materials such as carbon fiber.
300 kilometers per hour in 16 counts
Thanks to the two electric motors at the front, there is four-wheel drive, with which you can hit 100 kilometers per hour in 2.9 seconds. That’s fast, but in the world of hypercars nothing to surprise you. More impressive are the only 7 counts it takes to reach 200 km/h and the 15.6 count after which you chase the asphalt from a standstill at 300 km/h. The top speed is an impressive 352 km/h.
Because the Mercedes-AMG One is a plug-in hybrid, you can partially charge it with a plug. There is an 8.7 kilowatt-hour battery on board, which, according to Mercedes, allows you to drive up to about 18 kilometers electrically.
More stable thanks to ‘shark fin’
The AMG One is also a visual spectacle to see. Not least thanks to the gull-wing doors, but certainly also because of the many tricks the manufacturer uses to allow the air to flow optimally over the car. There is a huge air scoop in the nose and there is so-called active aerodynamics: movable flaps in the front fenders and a hefty air scoop on the roof that flows into what Mercedes-AMG calls a shark fin. The vertical spoiler on the back of the car should improve stability when cornering. To save weight, the Mercedes star has been airbrushed on the nose.
The V6 is hidden under two carbon fiber hoods and at the end of the buttocks we find a huge rear wing with a two-piece retractable blade and an adjustable flap. The coil springs are not vertical, as in most cars, but mounted transversely to the direction of travel. That is also technology from Formula 1. Unlike an F1 car, the AMG One does have safety systems such as ABS and traction control on board: without these systems a new car is not allowed on the public road.
Like the Formula 1 car, the Mercedes-AMG One has a so-called Drag Reduction System (DRS). At the touch of a button, the rear spoiler retracts and several slats close to reduce downforce by 20 percent and increase straight-line speed. The DRS is automatically deactivated as soon as the driver brakes.
Includes air conditioning and electric windows
Striking: in the bare-looking interior you have little luxury, but according to Mercedes-AMG there are air conditioning, electrically operated side windows and (due to the lack of visibility straight to the rear) a digital interior mirror. There are also two USB connections, but you do not have to count on many more luxurious facilities. For example, the backrests of the seats can only be adjusted in two positions.
Jochem Hermann, technical director of Mercedes-AMG, calls the creation of the One both a curse and a blessing. “The exhaust gas after-treatment in particular (mandatory due to the stricter emission requirements for road cars, ed.) was an unprecedented challenge, but we have walked the path strewn with obstacles.” The Mercedes-AMG likes conventional super-plus petrol, but has two ceramic catalytic converters and two particulate filters to filter the exhaust gases. On paper, the CO2 emissions per kilometer are 198 grams.
Do you want to hit the road with this super sports car? This is legal, but it will be difficult. Mercedes-AMG is only going to build 275 copies of the One and they are all already sold. It is not yet known what those people have paid for their super sports car with F1 technology.
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