Williams F1 Team and Mercedes-Benz announces long-term engine partnership

The Williams F1 Team bids farewell to their current engine partner Renault as they announce their long-term engine partnership with Mercedes-Benz. The partnership will officially start during the 2014 Formula One World Championship season.

Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains will supply the internal combustion engine and the energy recovery system, while the transmission will still be manufactured by Williams.

"I'm delighted to announce our new association with Mercedes-Benz for the 2014 Formula One season and beyond. Mercedes-Benz has been one of the sport's most successful engine suppliers and we believe that they will have an extremely competitive engine package" stated Sir Frank Williams, Williams F1 Team Founder and Team Principal.

In line with the 2014 regulations, the partnership aims to achieve power outputs that are comparable to the current used naturally aspirated 2.4-liter V8 engines to a 1.6-liter V6 turbocharged hybrid power units. The use of an Energy Recovery System (ERS) will make it possible to utilize ten times more energy than the current KERS and will result to a 30% increase in energy efficiency.

These new technical developments will offer significantly greater opportunities for technology transfer from Formula One race cars to real-world applications in areas such as battery technology, turbocharging, energy recovery and combustion efficiency.

"A further positive is that this new agreement provides Mercedes-Benz with the long-term stability of supplying our works team and at least two partners from the 2015 season onwards, following the conclusion of our relationship with McLaren at the end of next season." commented Andy Cowell, Managing Director of Mercedes AMG HPP