JANUARY 10, 2024
Mercedes shuts customer engine route
The announcement Mercedes will continue to supply Power Units to Williams until the end of 2030 has shut the door for other manufacturers to try and get costumers for their own products from the start of 2026. With McLaren already committed to keep working with the German manufacturer until the end of the next cycle of technical regulations, only Haas has yet to confirm which Power Units it will be using after the end of 2025, but given the very close links the American team has with Ferrari – to the extent it has placed its own design group in a building adjacent to the Scuderia’s factory! – there’s little doubt this relationship will carry on beyond the end of the current deal.
© Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
That being the case, the Power Units market is well and trully closed, two years before a new generation of engines comes to life, when no less than six manufacturers will be involved in Formula 1, the highest number the sport has known since 2008, just before the finantial crash that led Honda, Toyota and BMW out of Grand Prix racing.
Mercedes will be supplying 30 per cent of thr field, adding costumers McLaren and Williams to its own works team, while Ferrari is set to continue working with Haas, keeping the American team as costumer while, of course, using its own Power Units. Newcomer Red Bull Powertrains will supply the two teams owned by the Austrian company – Red Bull Racing and the renamed Racing Bulls – leaving the other three manufacturers committed to be in Formula 1 until the end of 2030 with just their works teams to test and develop the new V6’s.
Aston Martin and Honda will have an exclusive partnership, essentially funded by Aramco, with the Japanese fully committed to the Silverstone-based team, Audi will focus its initial efforts on its own team and Alpine will keep being the sole user of the engines designed and built in Viry-Châtillon, unless, of couse, Andetti Global is given an entry by the commercial rights owner, having cleared the FIA entry process a few months ago.
Only if the American team gets to race in Formula 1 from the start of 2026 will there be an opening for another costumer deal, but this too looks likely to have a foregone conclusion with Alpine set to be its Power Unit supplier for 2026 and 2027, before Cadillac joins Grand Prix racing and enters Formula 1 for the first time ever, from the start of 2028.