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It was a struggle to produce the AMG One, Mercedes‘ F1-powered hypercar. The complex hybrid machine struggled to meet emissions, weighs far more than anticipated, and is years behind schedule. It’s an incredible performer despite this, but Mercedes-AMG’s director of vehicle development, Steffen Jastrow, has said that this will be the only one, no pun intended. It was too much to make the AMG One work, and the company isn’t gonna do it again.
“I think no, there will be no successor,” he told the Australian publication carsales. “Not in the definition we have right now.” To be clear, Jastrow isn’t speaking about hypercars as a whole. He explains that an all-electric hypercar is certainly easier to justify in the face of ever-stringent emissions regulations, and one is plausible in the future. In terms of an F1-engined machine, he’s adamant it’s never going to happen again, though. “A hypercar based on the Formula 1 powertrain? I think that’s no chance.”
Jastrow explained that this is probably the last time such a car as the 1,063 horsepower One could be built anyway. Even with today’s very thermally efficient F1 engines and ever-advancing battery technology, it won’t be very long before even hybrid-powered hypercars are legislated out of existence. Keep in mind the AMG One has six catalytic converters—four of which are pre-heated—and two gasoline particulate filters. That’s part of the reason why it weighs 3,737 pounds.
It still weighs less than a comparably Rimac and holds the lap record for a production car at the Nurburgring. A car like it may never be built again, but there’s no denying the potential of hybrid performance cars. In many ways, they’re an awkward combination of two systems that struggle to work together without a lot of technical massaging. They’re also fast, efficient, impressive, and undeniable technical achievements.
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