Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains explained

Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP)^[2] (previously known as Ilmor Engineering and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines) is a Formula One engine manufacturer, owned by Mercedes-Benz.

The company supplied Sauber during the season, McLaren from to and from, Force India from to, Brawn in, the Mercedes factory team since, Atlassian Williams since, Lotus in, Manor Racing in, Racing Point Force India in, Racing Point from to, Aston Martin from to, and will supply Alpine from . Their engines have won twelve Formula One Drivers' Championships (7 for the Mercedes factory team, 4 for McLaren, and 1 for Brawn) and twelve Formula One Constructors' Championships (8 for the Mercedes factory team, 3 for McLaren, and 1 for Brawn). Beside those Formula One constructors, the company currently supplies road-legal engines for the Mercedes-AMG One sports car.

Background

See main article: Ilmor. Ilmor 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.^[3]

Daimler-Benz (later known as Daimler) acquired General Motors' 25% share of Ilmor in 1993. In 2002, Daimler increased its share to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. In 2005, it 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 sub-brand.^[4]

At the same time, the small Special Projects part of the company, which between 2003 and 2011 had been contracted to co-develop, co-assembly, arrangement, preparation and tune up Honda's IndyCar Series engines, 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 (formerly March). 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, March scored 3 points, and Tyrrell 8 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.

Ilmor became the Mercedes's trusted engine builder partner and assembler to McLaren in 1995 after Ilmor decided to reposition its Formula One involvement by ceasing its independent engine supply program. 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.^[5] Since the introduction of the new engine formula, Mercedes-powered cars have achieved pole position in 148 out of 252 races as of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and have won 140 out of 252 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 a device within a week.^{[6] [7]} 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 were being produced on machines that typically manufactured pistons and turbochargers for Formula 1 engines.^[8] Mercedes would go on to win the Drivers' and Constructors' championships in 2020.^[9]

Mercedes supplied the engines that powered McLaren to Constructors’ Championship titles in and ; in 2025 a Mercedes powered McLaren driven by Lando Norris claimed the Drivers’ Championship.

Formula One engine results

See main article: Mercedes engine customers' Grand Prix results.

Constructor	Season(s)	Total wins			First win	Last win
Sauber		0				–	–
McLaren	–, –		3 (1998, 2024‍–‍2025)	4 (‍–‍,,)	1997 Australian Grand Prix	2025 São Paulo Grand Prix
Brawn		8	1 (2009)	1	2009 Australian Grand Prix	2009 Italian Grand Prix
Force India	–	0				–	–
Mercedes	–		8 (–)	7 (–)	2012 Chinese Grand Prix	2025 Singapore Grand Prix
Atlassian Williams	–					–	–
Lotus		0				–	–
MRT		0				–	–
Racing Point Force India		0				–	–
Racing Point	–	1				2020 Sakhir Grand Prix	2020 Sakhir Grand Prix
Aston Martin	–	0				–	–	-	Alpine						–	– change "2025" below to "2026" when this section is uncommented -->
Total	–		12	12	1997 Australian Grand Prix	2025 São Paulo Grand Prix

List of Formula One engines and power units

!Season!Name!Format!Approximate peak power @ rpm
!Notes

	Mercedes-Benz 2175B	3.496 L V10	NaNlk=onNaNlk=on @ 14,000 rpm[10] [11]	Built by Ilmor
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110	2.997 L 75° V10	690abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,600 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110D		720abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,700 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110E		NaNabbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,800 rpm[12]
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110G	2.998 L 72° V10	800abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 16,100 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110H		810abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 16,200 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110J		815abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 17,800 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110K		830abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 17,800 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110M	2.998 L 90° V10	845abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 18,300 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110P		850abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 18,500 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110Q		870abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 18,500 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 110R		930abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 19,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108S	2.398 L 90° V8	750abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 19,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108T		810abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 19,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108V		NaNabbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 19,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108W		750abbr=onNaNabbr=on + KERS @ 18,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108X		750abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 18,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108Y		750abbr=onNaNabbr=on + KERS @ 18,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108Z		750abbr=onNaNabbr=on + KERS @ 18,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz FO 108F		750abbr=onNaNabbr=on + KERS @ 18,000 rpm
	Mercedes-Benz PU106A	1.600 L 90° V6 turbo hybrid	630kW @ 15,000 rpm[13]
	Mercedes-Benz PU106B		649kW @ 15,000 rpm[14]	Adapted for use in the Mercedes-AMG ONE[15]
	Mercedes-Benz PU106C		670kW @ 15,000 rpm[16]
	Mercedes-AMG M08 EQ Power+		949abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm[17]
	Mercedes-AMG M09 EQ Power+		1000abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm[18]
	Mercedes-AMG M10 EQ Power+		1000abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm	Badged as "BWT Mercedes" for Racing Point
	Mercedes-AMG M11 EQ Performance		1025abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm[19]
	Mercedes-AMG M12 E Performance		1050abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm
	Mercedes-AMG M13 E Performance		1070abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm[20]
	Mercedes-AMG M14 E Performance		1080abbr=onNaNabbr=on @ 15,000 rpm[21]
	Mercedes-AMG M15 E Performance
	Mercedes-AMG M16 E Performance

See also

• Mercedes-Benz in motorsport

External links

• • Profile at Grand Prix Encyclopedia

Notes and References

1. Web site: About us: Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains. Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains. 2 February 2022. 29 September 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230929074921/https://www.mercedes-amg-hpp.com/about-us/. dead.
2. Web site: Mercedes-AMG HPP Helps Bring F1 Technology to Electric Road Cars . 15 July 2025 . Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team . en-US.
3. Web site: Tytler. Ewan. Ilmor: Bowmen of the Silver Arrows. Atlas F1. Haymarket Media. 9 April 2014.
4. Web site: Company Details. 30 November 2022 . Companies House.
5. Web site: Benson. Andrew. F1: McLaren can catch Mercedes says race chief Eric Boullier. BBC Sport. 9 April 2014. 9 April 2014.
6. News: Walsh. Fergus. F1 team helps to create coronavirus breathing aid. 30 March 2020. BBC News. 30 March 2020. en-GB.
7. News: Sample . Ian . F1 team helps build new UK breathing aid for Covid-19 patients . 2 April 2020 . The Guardian . 30 March 2020.
8. Web site: Design of new breathing aid developed by Mercedes to be made freely available Formula 1®. www.formula1.com. en. 7 April 2020.
9. Web site: Emilia Romagna GP Facts & Stats: Hamilton ties another Schumacher record while Mercedes re-write record books once more. 1 November 2020. www.formula1.com. en.
10. Web site: Since 1994: Mercedes-Benz in Formula 1 . dead . 27 May 2021 . marsMediaSite . en . 21 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210921055541/https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko/Since-1994-Mercedes-Benz-in-Formula-1.xhtml?oid=9361644 .
11. Web site: Engine Mercedes • STATS F1 . 27 May 2021 . www.statsf1.com . fr.
12. Web site: McLaren Racing – Heritage – MP4-12 . dead . 16 March 2022 . Mclaren.com . 29 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201129024015/https://www.mclaren.com/racing/heritage/cars/1997-formula-1-mclaren-mp4-12/ .
13. Web site: Petric . Darjan . 29 April 2021 . Mercedes didn't use full F1 engine power in 2014 . 28 July 2022 . MAXF1 . en-US.
14. Web site: 17 June 2020 . How Long Do F1 Engines Last? F1 Chronicle . 27 May 2021 . en-AU.
15. Web site: New Mercedes-AMG One revealed: price, specs and release date . 22 September 2022 . carwow.co.uk . en.
16. Web site: 6 February 2016 . Mercedes producing over 900bhp with more to come . 28 July 2022 . ESPN . en.
17. @ 15,000 rpmWeb site: Petric . Darjan . 5 January 2018 . How much power F1 engines have? . 27 May 2021 . MAXF1net . en-US.
18. Web site: Saward . Joe . 10 May 2018 . Mercedes F1 engine is a true modern marvel . 28 July 2022 . Autoweek . en-US.
19. Web site: 5 January 2021 . Mercedes New Engine in 2021 with More 25 Horsepower – 'Party Mode Whole Race'! . 27 May 2021 . F1Lead.com . en-US . 16 December 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211216173604/https://f1lead.com/2021/01/05/mercedes-new-engine-in-2021-with-more-25-horsepower-party-mode-whole-race/ . dead .
20. Web site: Mercedes enters 2022 with extra horsepower through improved turbocharger . 28 July 2022 . www.gpblog.com . 19 January 2022 . en.
21. Web site: 2023-02-15 . Mercedes to reportedly add major horsepower increase to engine for F1 2023 season Crash.net . 2026-02-08 . www.crash.net . en.