Mercedes-Benz extends power unit deal with Williams Racing

Mercedes-Benz announced that the power unit (PU) deal with Williams Racing will be extend  until 2030.

The latest development means that the German car brand will continue to supply the British racing team with engines for its Formula 1 race cars — extending the partnership between the two to around two decades by the 2030 season.

“It is fantastic to extend our partnership with Williams Racing until 2030. We have enjoyed a strong relationship with them since the introduction of the current power unit regulations and look forward to continuing that into this next era. Their commitment and support to our future power unit strategy are highly valued. We look forward to approaching these new rules set together, with the same passion and enthusiasm we did in 2014 and with the aim of achieving similar successes,” Mercedes-Benz Group AG Member of the Board of Management and Chief Technology Officer Markus Schaefer said.

Mercedes-Benz also revealed that Williams Racing is the second customer team the brand will support using a next-generation power unit based on the regulations to be implemented on 2026.

“We are delighted to confirm Williams Racing as the second customer team that we will supply for the 2026 power unit regulations. Today’s news highlights the strength of the Mercedes-Benz offering in F1 and importantly not only validates but reinforces our overall motorsport strategy. Since 2014, we have continued to build and develop our relationship with Williams. As the team continues to put the foundations in place to challenge at the front of the grid, we look forward to supporting them with our power unit supply,” Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Head Toto Wolff noted.

That said, Mercedes-Benz said that a new power unit is being developed at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth.

Once the said PU has been rolled out, Mercedes-Benz explained that a healthy portfolio of strong customer teams will enable faster learning when the engines are put through their paces on the track by 2026.

“Williams is an historic F1 team and over the course of our partnership, we have enjoyed notable successes together since first partnering back in 2014. One of our proudest moments at HPP in the current turbo hybrid era was seeing our power unit lock out the top four positions at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix with Williams taking a well-deserved third and fourth. Our working relationship with Williams has only strengthened over the past decade and we look forward to continuing that productive approach as we head into the next generation of power units in 2026,” Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains Managing Director Hywel Thomas commented.

Williams Racing has been a Mercedes-Benz customer team since the start of the current turbo hybrid era and has since taken 16 podium finishes.

Within the said period, the team was able to finish third in the World Constructors’ Championship in 2014 and 2015 and enjoyed its most successful season since 2017 after it finished seventh overall in the 2023 standing.

“We have enjoyed a long-term partnership with Mercedes-Benz, and we are thrilled to extend this collaboration into the next era of Formula 1. The expertise, support, and technology that Mercedes brings to the table align perfectly with our team's aspirations in the medium and long term. This long-term agreement with Mercedes is a positive step and forms part of our strategic objectives for the future, whilst we will still retain our design and manufacturing expertise and capabilities in-house,” Williams Racing Team Principal James Vowles stated.

Photo from Mercedes Benz

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