Mercedes reaffirms F1 commitment in wake of Honda exit

As part of a new global strategy Mercedes revealed to investors on Tuesday, the German manufacturer made clear its full commitment to electrification.

This will include a new range of electric vehicles and a specific push with its sub brands, including Maybach, G, EQ and AMG

With the latter focusing on the performance end of Mercedes' products, plans have been announced to enhance the ties between the AMG brand and its F1 team.

There is already the Project One road car, which is fitted with an F1 turbo hybrid engine and will be released next year, but the plans will extend well beyond that.

It is understood there will be much closer marketing links between the F1 team and AMG, an increased co-operation on technology transfer from racing to road cars, plus a greater presence on the team's car livery.

It means AMG's logos will have a bigger presence on the F1 cars than they do at the moment.

Speaking during an investors' call on Tuesday, Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius said: "We will use the technology development in Formula 1 for performance hybrids and going into other exciting technologies in the future, and put that into our AMG cars.

"With Project One, we're taking the Formula 1 powertrain and putting it on the road.

"So it just comes natural to us to leverage Formula 1 even more for AMG going forward."

While the challenge that car manufacturers face in moving towards electrification prompted Honda to decide to pull its F1 project at the end of next year, Mercedes has instead made clear it see F1's value and technical challenge as key to its future.

As well as the AMG/F1 closer ties, Mercedes will make use of its current F1 infrastructure to help push its road car technology to the next level.

As part of what it is calling its Vision EQXX technology programme, it wants to build an electric vehicle with huge range beyond what is possible with current batteries.

It was tasked a special workforce in Stuttgart, who will call on Mercedes' F1 specialists from its Brixworth High Performance Powertrains group for their expertise, to help on this project.