GT RACING WITH "ENGINEERING SPEED"

Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Programme

All Mercedes-AMG GT racing cars, which will be used on race tracks around the world from the 2011 season onwards, were developed and produced by HWA. The first racing car in the AMG customer sports programme is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (2010-2015) developed by HWA. The SLS represented a real milestone for AMG, as it was the first car to be developed entirely in-house. In 2016, the GT3 racing version of the Mercedes-AMG GT, newly developed by HWA, heralded a new era in the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer sports programme. The Mercedes AMG GT 3 has been produced and delivered since December 2015. The vehicle was developed for sprint and endurance races in accordance with the near-series FIA GT3 regulations. In 2017, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 was introduced. In 2019, an evolution model of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 was presented, which will be in use from 2020.

In addition to the vehicles, HWA is also responsible for the support offer (e.g. briefings, spare parts, revisions, etc.). With the increasing professionalisation of GT sport, the manufacturers are also contesting more and more factory or factory-supported events - e.g. at the FIA GT World Cup in Macau or at the legendary 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. Here, too, HWA's technical and strategic competence as on-site support contributes significantly to the success. Within just a decade, the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Programme has developed into one of the largest and most successful programmes on the market with the help of HWA. By the end of 2019, around 400 customer sports vehicles had left HWA's production line.

Review: anniversary season 2020

Founded ten years ago, the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Programme also remains on course for success in its anniversary season. In spite of various races being cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation, the international AMG Customer Racing Teams were again able to rack up numerous victories and titles, seamlessly continuing their successful streak from the record years 2018 and 2019. In 320 races with participation of Customer Racing cars from Affalterbach this year, there were 69 overall wins and 169 class wins.

In total, 218 drivers and 97 teams competed at 86 race tracks in 23 countries all over the world with Mercedes-AMG GT3 and GT4 cars – more than ever before in the ten-year history of the programme. With their achievements at the race track, the teams and drivers collected more than 25 championship titles for the Mercedes-Benz performance and sports car brand.

Outlook: 2021 GT programme

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport is expanding its globally successful GT programme and will also be represented in the German DTM race series in 2021. In the inaugural season of the reframed series, multiple customer teams will be competing for points, victories and titles with cars from the traditional brand from Affalterbach. Next to that, an equally strong focus by Mercedes-AMG in the 2021 season is on numerous highlight series and endurance racing classics in which this year, several customer teams will be competing for success with extended support from Mercedes-AMG again: next to the legendary 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps, these also include the endurance races of the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) as well as the races of the GT World Challenge and the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS). The ADAC GT Masters is also playing a central role again in Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing’s planning: in the super sports car league with its traditionally strong entry, all four customer teams that were involved there last year managed to score race wins. At the end of the season, no other manufacturer had more victories to its tally.