WHAT DRIVES MERCEDES' PLAN TO IMPROVE AMG F1 BRANDING?

 Mercedes' team and vehicle will "always" bear the Mercedes identity, despite intentions to increase the prominence of performance brand AMG, as Daimler reinforces its longer-term commitment to Formula 1.

The championship-winning team has frequently denied rumours that it is planning to sell up and depart F1, reducing Mercedes' status to that of an engine supplier.

It underlined its commitment by signing the new Concorde Agreement, which defines commercial terms for Formula One through 2025, and again last week, when Mercedes-business Benz's plan was published.

One aspect that will alter is the so-called "intensification" of AMG's connection to the F1 team.

AMG has been featured in the team name for some years, and this is likely to be reflected in more on-car branding and technology transfer marketing when the AMG division electrifies its output beginning in 2021.

However, Mercedes F1 head Toto Wolff stated that this is not a'soft' withdrawal from Daimler's primary brand because the team would remain as Mercedes - unlike Renault, which is entirely rebranding its works team in the name and image of its sub-brand Alpine.

"I think it's in Mercedes' DNA to race," Wolff remarked when asked if Mercedes might diminish or lose its own F1 presence to AMG.

"The first Mercedes was a racing vehicle, and we make both road cars and race cars."

"However, the new approach for the future is to provide the sub-brands a wider marketing platform, and it's AMG, EQ, and Maybach." And I think it's great that each of those brands gets its own personality.

"Our high-performance brand is AMG. Formula 1 vehicles are extremely fast.

"The Mercedes brand will not be withdrawn from Formula One." On the contrary, it will always remain a Mercedes.

"The chassis will always be a Mercedes." Mercedes will always remain the team name. And we're all Mercedes fans.

"But, on top of that, we are AMG." We represent AMG as a high-performance brand, and we wish to expand AMG's current visibility.

"Technology is being transferred between the firms." But just increase marketing exposure and highlight technological transfer between AMG and the Mercedes Formula 1 team."

Following Honda's intention to quit F1 at the end of 2021, manufacturer commitment to the sport has been highlighted.

The Japanese business has opted to divert its financial and technical resources from F1 to its automotive initiatives, believing that it has lagged behind competitors in electrification and has to speed research in areas such as new engine and fuel technologies.

With its V6 turbo-hybrid engines and upcoming sustainable fuels, F1's other manufacturers feel the competition remains a meaningful resource deployment.
F1 will continue to be a worthy technological exercise, according to Wolff, but the next-generation engines in 2026 must be adequately championed and more cost-effective.

"I feel we are not communicating the hybrid narrative well," he remarked.

"Using the energy recovery with kinetic energy or exhaust gases, the batteries that we're employing, and the technology within them, these automobiles have 50 percent thermal efficiency and complexity."

"We're an excellent example of hybrid technology." And, whatever they come up with, the next generation of power units will feature even more sustainable energy recovery and propulsion technologies in the future.

"We know now that we have to look at the prices; we don't want to make the same error as these power units in being entirely engineering-driven, but we want to make sure that we have something new, sustainable, powerful, fuel-efficient, and at a fair price."