Here’s How Mercedes-Benz is Using Formula 1 to Make Better Electric Cars and Hybrids

“Racing improves the breed.” There was a time when this old automotive aphorism indeed rang true. But the linkage between performance on the track and performance on the road has become increasingly tenuous over the years, especially as race cars have become more specialized and subject to ever tighter technical regulations designed to improve “the show.” A case in point: Name apart, Denny Hamlin’s V-8-powered, rear-drive Toyota Camry NASCAR Cup Series race car has absolutely nothing in common with the front-drive four-cylinder family sedan on sale at Toyota dealers across the country.

So you might think the technologies deployed in Formula 1, where race teams spend hundreds of millions chasing performance improvements measured in hundredths of a second, would be even further removed from the cars we can buy today. But you’d be wrong, says Adam Allsopp, director of the Advanced Technology division of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP). Allsopp’s Advanced Technology operation has been feeding learnings from HPP’s deep experience with high-performance F1 hybrid power units into the development of Mercedes-Benz EVs and hybrids we’ll see on the road as early as next year.

See All 7 Photos7

Since 2010, Mercedes-AMG HPP, which is in Brixworth in the heart of the U.K.’s so-called F1 Valley, has engineered and built the powertrains for the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 race cars. Founded in 1983 as Ilmor by engineers Mario Illien and Paul Morgan with funding from Roger Penske, the company started designing and building engines for Penske’s IndyCar team and built its first F1 engine, a 3.0-liter naturally aspirated V-10, for the Japanese-owned Leyton House team in 1991. In 1993 a version of that engine powered the Mercedes-supported Sauber F1 cars that previewed the three-pointed star’s official return to F1 the following year as an engine supplier.

HPP powertrains have won 21 world championships over the past 30 years, including seven drivers’ titles for Lewis Hamilton, and eight F1 Constructors’ Championships for the Mercedes-AMG F1 team. Building hardware that delivers results like that is HPP’s raison d’etre, Allsopp says. As HPP engineering director, he oversaw the creation and ongoing development of the G-series hybrid power unit that has powered Mercedes F1 cars since 2014 and headed the program to perfect a road-legal version of that powertrain for the AMG One hypercar. “We have a clear mission,” he says. “Winning.”

But how does that translate into building better road cars? “It’s not specifically saying, ‘We’ll develop that in Formula 1 and then we’ll put that straight into a production car,’” Allsopp says. “It’s not that binary. It’s more nuanced. Formula 1 lets us explore the art of the possible. We learn about the absolute limits of certain technologies.” And while a Mercedes Formula 1 race car might look wildly different from a Mercedes-Benz production car, Allsopp contends their engineering, especially in the electric car era, is underpinned by some common themes. “We want efficiency in racing because we are fuel-flow limited and energy limited,” he says, “and we want efficiency in road cars so that we can get [driving] range.”

Allsopp then points out HPP has been running two headline EV road car technologies, 800V electrical architectures and silicon-carbide inverters, for a decade in Formula 1. “We’ve also got a huge amount of learning of the software and calibration challenges of really high-performance electric machines,” he says. This deep knowledge was used to help develop the hyper-efficient EV powertrain of the EQXX concept, which in turn has influenced the design of the powertrain in the EV version of the forthcoming Mercedes-Benz CLA.

Beyond that, Allsopp says racing at the highest level, where success or failure is measured in fractions of a second and broadcast to the world almost every other weekend, also teaches engineers to be nimble and focused, target oriented, and intensely competitive. “We take that motorsport mindset and apply it to innovative and ambitious technology projects,” Allsopp says. “We are a resource for Mercedes-Benz R&D. A resource that thinks in a very different way and will challenge conventions.”

See All 7 Photos7

Indeed, the vibe inside HPP, which at one stage was run by current Mercedes chairman and CEO Ola Källenius, feels more Silicon Valley than Stuttgart. “We want curious, creative, tenacious engineers who are chasing interesting, relevant technologies,” says Allsopp, who readily admits that not being constrained by the broader realities of automaking gives his organization a lot of freedom to think and innovate. “It’s not about replacing the advanced engineering work [at Mercedes-Benz R&D]. We can focus on specific elements, and that’s where we bring that difference.”

One area under intense study by HPP Advanced Technology engineers is the development of inverter and power-electronics technologies. “Inverters and power electronics are where the big wins are going to be in EVs in the foreseeable future,” Allsopp says. “There will be a far greater rate of change in terms of cost, capability, and size in inverters than e-motors. The cost of power electronics will come down, the size will come down, and they will be a key driver in increasing EV range.” Much of the work is focused on improving the quality of the sine wave produced by the power electronics which chop up the DC feed from the battery and reassemble it into the AC feed that powers the e-motors. A better AC sine wave means fewer system losses as power is sent to the motors and recouped and sent back to the battery. “We chase this ‘round trip efficiency’ in Formula 1,” Allsopp says.

Indeed, Allsopp has no doubt that, through Mercedes-AMG HPP, Formula 1 helps improve the performance of the coming generation of Mercedes-Benz production cars in ways that will be meaningful to consumers. “In some ways Formula 1 is beautifully simple,” he says. “Everyone's got the same set of rules, and they are quite proscriptive, which gives you the purity of being able to chase the engineering [to improve performance and efficiency under those parameters]. You can’t translate all of that into the road car world, but you can translate elements of it. And that’s what we're trying to do.”