Mercedes-Benz quits Formula E to concentrate on EVs and F1

Mercedes-Benz has announced it is quitting the ABB Formula E World Championship at the end of next season, claiming it needs the resources currently spent on pure-electric racing to ramp up electric road car development.

The announcement comes just days after the German car-maker's Mercedes-EQ team won the 2020/21 world championship, with Dutch Benz racer Nyck de Vries taking the drivers' title.

The decision to withdraw as both an entrant and manufacturer in Formula E pre-empts the pure-electric race series' introduction of its Gen3 rules that are designed to both improve racing and help car-makers develop new tech that could be transferred to road cars.

Other rule changes will introduce mid-race charging up to 600kW and efforts to reduce each race car's weight by around 120kg.

Mercedes-Benz said its decision to end its association with Formula E coincides with a declaration that it would switch to a full-electric line-up in certain markets by 2030.

This has meant that Benz has "deliberately chosen to shift resources for this accelerated ramp-up of electrification” which will include creating three new bespoke EV architectures to underpin its more ambitious aims for EVs.

Despite saying it needs to save money to reinvest into EVs, Mercedes isn't ready to leave F1, with the company saying it remains committed to the top-tier motorsport.

Justifying the estimated $615 million it spent to win the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship, Benz said that the Mercedes-AMG F1 team was the "fastest laboratory for developing and proving sustainable and scalable future performance technologies”.

Commenting on the Formula E withdrawal, Mercedes-Benz Cars boss, Markus Shafer, said: "Formula E has been a good driver for proving our expertise and establishing our Mercedes-EQ brand.

"But in future we will keep pushing technological progress, especially on the electric drive side, focusing on Formula 1. It is the arena where we constantly test our technology in the most intense competition the automotive world has to offer – and the three-pointed star hardly shines brighter anywhere else.

“F1 offers rich potential for technology transfer, as we can see in ongoing projects such as the Vision EQXX, and our team and the entire series will achieve net-zero status by the end of the decade.”

Instead of outright quitting, Benz said it was open to selling Mercedes-EQ to new owners, with rumours suggesting that Mercedes-AMG F1 boss Toto Wolff – who already owns a third of the F1 team – could purchase the operation and run it as a privateer.

News of the Mercedes-Benz exit from Formula E follows a similar decision from Audi and BMW to also leave the sport.