Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (previously known as Ilmor Engineering and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines) is a

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

engine manufacturer, owned by

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

. The company supplied

Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG, currently competing in Formula One as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, and also known simply as Kick Sauber or Sauber, is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who pro ...

during the season,

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

from to and from , Force India from to , Brawn in , the Mercedes factory team since , Williams since , Lotus in ,

Manor Racing Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, trading as Manor Racing MRT or Pertamina Manor Racing MRT, was a British Formula One racing team and constructor based in Banbury, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. The outfit competed from 2010 to 2016: the te ...

in , Racing Point Force India in , Racing Point from to ,

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

from onwards, and will supply Alpine from . Their engines have won eleven Formula One Drivers' Championships (7 for the Mercedes factory team, 3 for McLaren, and 1 for Brawn) and eleven Formula One Constructors' Championships (8 for the Mercedes factory team, 2 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

Ilmor Ilmor is a British independent high-performance auto racing, motor racing engineering company. It was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan (engineer), Paul Morgan in November 1983. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and ...

was founded by

Mario Illien Mario Illien (born 2 August 1949) is a Swiss engineer specialising in motorsport engine design and comes from Chur in the Graubünden, Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. Despite living in a country in which motor racing was banned in 1955 (when ...

and Paul Morgan in 1983, as an independent British

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 Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937), also known as "the Captain", is an American auto racing team owner, businessman, and former professional driver. Penske is the owner of Team Penske, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar, and ...

Daimler-Benz Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a Germany, German Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is o ...

(later known as Daimler) acquired

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

' 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 Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG (Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach), is the high-performance subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz AG. AMG independently hires engineers and contracts with manufacturers to customize Mercedes-Benz AMG v ...

sub-brand. 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 commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...

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 The Tyrrell Racing Organisation was an auto racing team and Formula One constructor founded by Ken Tyrrell (1924–2001) which started racing in 1958 and started building its own cars in 1970. The team experienced its greatest success in the e ...

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

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

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 Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...

. In 2001, Paul Morgan was killed whilst landing his vintage aeroplane at Sywell Aerodrome,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. 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 A V6 engine is a six- cylinder piston engine where the cylinders and cylinder blocks share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, ...

, which features both a

kinetic energy recovery system A kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) is an automotive system for recovering a moving vehicle's kinetic energy under braking. The recovered energy is stored in a reservoir (for example a flywheel or high voltage batteries) for later use under ...

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, Mercedes-powered cars have achieved pole position in 140 out of 238 races as of the

2025 Canadian Grand Prix The 2025 Canadian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix du Canada 2025) was a Formula One motor race which was held on 15 June 2025 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the tenth round o ...

, and have won 132 out of 238 races during this period. In March 2020, in light of the delayed seasons due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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. On the first day of production, Mercedes HPP manufactured 600

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a form of positive airway pressure (PAP) ventilation in which a constant level of pressure greater than atmospheric pressure is continuously applied to the upper respiratory tract of a person. The a ...

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. Mercedes would go on to win the Drivers' and Constructors' championships in 2020.

Formula One engine results

List of Formula One engines and power units

References

External links