Mercedes-AMG will again supply the safety and medical car for the coming Formula 1 season. This year it’s the turn of the GT Black Series and the GT 63 S, a significant upgrade from the GT R and C 63 S Estate the previous season. Still, they have to be sidelined for most of the races.
AMG has been supplying the safety cars for Formula 1 continuously since 1996. With 730 hp, the AMG GT Black Series is in any case the most powerful safety car to roll out of Affalterbach. From a technical point of view, according to AMG, the car is completely standard, apart from a suspension specially tuned for the track. Of course he gets a few things on board that are necessary on the safety car. Where there is normally a light bar on the roof, AMG opted for the Black Series to hide the warning lights behind the windscreen and in the spoiler. In this way the aerodynamics are not disturbed.
To give driver Bernd Mayländer – the permanent man behind the wheel of the safety car – a good view to the rear, the Black Series has a digital interior mirror that works via cameras in the spoiler. The co-driver can also conjure up these images on a separate tablet. Apart from the extra screens, a radio module for contact with the race management and the buttons to operate the lights, the interior of the safety car is exactly the same as that of a GT Black Series with ‘Track Package’.
More intensely adapted
To make the ‘medical car’ trackworthy, AMG had to go a little more rigorously than with the GT Black Series. The 639 hp GT 63 S 4Matic+ got a full roll cage with four full bucket seats with six-point seat belts in the interior. The co-driver has two tablets and a separate digital rear view mirror at his disposal to keep an eye on the situation on the track. Unlike the safety car, the medical car does have a light bar on its roof. On the GT 63 S, it is located at the very back, just above the rear window.
The racing seats in the back of the GT 63 S 4-door.
The AMG GT Black Series and GT 63 S 4Matic+ share the service roster this season with the Aston Martin Vantage and DBX. In addition, the Astons get one more race to choose from. The Mercedes will be in action in 11 of the 23 race weekends, Aston Martin will take care of 12. The Aston Martins have to make do with a lot less power. The Vantage kicks it up to 535 hp, the DBX unleashes 550 hp on the asphalt.
The new Formula 1 season will start on the weekend of March 18-20. Read all about the new cars the teams will be driving here.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl