Mercedes-AMG designed the One to be the fastest ever road-legal production car. Track records at Monza and the Nurburgring prove that it is.
Built specifically to conquer the most prestigious track records in the world using F1 technology, the unreal Mercedes-AMG One has done it again by setting the fastest lap time at Monza. As a road-legal production car, it set the best lap time in its class by hurtling around Monza’s Temple of Speed in a time of 1 minute 43.902 seconds.
This lap smashes the next best times set by Mercedes’ arch rivals Ferrari and Porsche. The One was over ten seconds faster than the Ferrari 488 Pista and Porsche 911 GT3 as it screamed down Monza’s legendary straightaways at lightning speed.
Lap times like this have put this Mercedes-Benz hypercar into a class of its own. Only seconds off the F1 lap time record, the One is the fastest ever road-legal production car to date at Monza. Using the latest hybrid-boosted performance sophistication, it has reached new heights.
Here’s Why Mercedes-AMG Built The One Hypercar
Mercedes built the One with the express purpose of creating a road-legal production car that was faster than any competitor on the racetrack. Mercedes-AMG created this scintillating performance by taking an F1-derived turbocharged V6 from Lewis Hamilton’s championship-winning race car, and used four electric motors working in tandem to create a combined 1,049 horsepower.
This staggering amount of instant acceleration, power, and torque meant that the One gets an extra boost of acceleration out of each corner then spools out the power of the combustion engine to max speed on the long straits of Monza. With a 0-62 mph (0-100 kph) acceleration time of 2.9 seconds, this is truly a car that deserves respect.
Despite the simple philosophy behind the One, there were a few setbacks on the way to creating this unsurpassed hybrid hypercar. With four electric motors needed to boost the horsepower of this hypercar powered by a road-legal F1 engine, the ballooning weight of the car was an issue fixed by upping the total horsepower output to above 1,000.
There were also – oddly enough for a hybrid car – issues meeting European carbon emission regulations. It was a challenge for Mercedes engineers to create a car that was road legal while staying true to its much vaunted F1-championship-winning roots.
How Does This Mercedes Hypercar Perform On The Racetrack?
The Mercedes Hypercar claims of mind-boggling acceleration from its hybrid powertrain and unsurpassable grip in the corners, thanks to its all-wheel drive system. This makes the Mercedes-AMG One a car that’s most at home setting lap records on a racetrack. Using a monocoque chassis and push-rod suspension, the One is a highly engineered hypercar. The AWD power afforded by the four electric motors gives this next-gen supercar astonishing acceleration as well as eye-watering grip on the apex of every corner.
The carbon monocoque chassis integrates the engine and gearbox for a stiffer and stronger structure. That’s definitely needed when you’re channeling north of a thousand horsepower into this car’s wheels. The push-rod suspension circumvents the need for an anti-roll bar while eliminating any mid-corner tilt or softness. Even while railing the apex of a damp chicane while chasing a lap record.
There’s also a Strat 2 driving mode taken straight from the cockpit of an F1 race car. This engages active aerodynamics at high speeds, tightens the chassis, lowers the car to the ground, and gives the electric motors the thumbs-up to pour all of their boost into a max attack on the racetrack.
This isn’t a car designed for an immersive driving feel or finesse on public roads. It was designed to go as fast as possible in a straight line and around corners. A marketing exercise as well as an unbelievably fast street-legal hypercar, the Mercedes-AMG One is perhaps the pinnacle of the hybrid hypercar epoch as we are entering the era of EV sports cars.
Lap Records Set By The Mercedes-AMG One
Besides Monza, the Mercedes-AMG One has also set the lap record at the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife. With Mercedes factory driver Maro Engel at the helm – who also drove the record-setting lap at Monza – the One rocketed around the Nordschleife to set a lap record that was eight seconds faster than the next fastest road-legal production car, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS.
What these lap records show is that Mercedes definitely achieved their goal. They’d set out to create hypercars capable of beating any other road-legal vehicle straight out of the factory. With the current hybrid-engine technology, next-level aerodynamics, and engineering solutions, it’s becoming more and more common to create vehicles capable of speeds that establish new horizons in terms of raw performance.
The Mercedes-AMG One sets a new standard when it comes to hypercar performance. It will be interesting to see what its competitors come up with to answer the One’s lap records.
