Mercedes-Benz AMG One review

It is never, ever, not even for a moment, dull to drive. The selection of noises inside is bizarre – there are whizzes, chuffs, hums and cheeps as the powertrain makes unfathomable but important decisions behind you. You press the throttle, you feel the force, but what exactly is going on between the two is anyone’s guess. It’s not conventional, but it is exciting as 574 internally combusted horsepower get jiggy with another 489 from three e-motors (the 122bhp fourth motor just drives the turbo).

There’s no lag and with 4WD and killer torque there’s no need to chase the redline, just let the mid-range torque slam home and pin you back. Given its head I reckon the AMG One has the widest effective powerband of any car I can think of – strong from 4,000rpm, here’s a turbo engine that does its best work around 8-9,000rpm and is still fizzing with energy at 11.

And does it genuinely have an actual F1 powerplant?

Actual F1 engine? No. Quite how much actual F1 componentry made it direct from 2016 W06 race car to One road car Mercedes isn’t saying, but the broad strokes of the powertrain are certainly the same.

Here’s what we didn’t expect. From cold you have to wait 50-60 secs for the cats to pre-heat, but that’s not the issue. It’s that once they have we’ve never come across a car that sounds quite as broken at idle. It’s like the crankshaft has snapped and is busily churning the engine internals to pieces. It’s awful. It turns out Lewis Hamilton won F1 championships with something that brought the sounds of a construction site to the pitlane.

And does it have the chassis to match the F1 power?

Yes, although we are talking about something over twice the weight of an F1 car. Mercedes claims 1,695kg, but on a set of corner weighting scales it came in at 1,745kg. In the grand scheme of modern hypercars that’s not too bad, but when the similarly F1-inspired Aston Valkyrie is 1,340kg, it’s still not pretty.

The weight doesn’t hold it back much. This is an exotically fast car. Bar two low speed sections, Thruxton is a super-rapid circuit – the UK’s fastest in fact – and the AMG was a deeply reassuring car to drive through high-speed corners, locking itself to a line and refusing to be budged off it. It’s a tenacious thing, terrifically stable and secure, with confidence inspiring brakes and impressive turn in.

It really rewarded being taken by the scruff and thrown at corners, its eagerness there more akin to a rally car than what you’d imagine must be a highly-strung F1 car. Fully ramped up the suspension is stiff, skipping occasionally, letting you know it’s working hard. In Strat2 mode it gives its all, and after a few laps the electric is depleted, but drop it to Race+ and it’s amazing how quickly it regenerates charge. It’s complex, fascinating to drive from start to finish.

Does it have an F1 gearbox as well?

It comes from F1 suppliers Xtrac, but is a completely different design. Still a single clutch sequential, it’s surprisingly smooth and soft, the downshifts snappier and more convincing than the upshifts.

When Chris Harris first drove it, he reported the upshifts were slovenly, but improvements seem to have been made since. The same applies to the brakes, which boast full regenerative function, but they're feelsome and potent from the word go. There’s little sense of handover between electric regen and friction discs now.

How’s the driving position?

We’ll go into more cabin detail in the next section, but the steering wheel is oddly massive and the seats are sloppy and open-sided, so it’s an odd car to get to grips with. But with the powertrain yipping, gnashing and growling away and a knee-high view out that encompasses the open vents, the experience is full-on. More Le Mans than F1, admittedly, but definitely motorsport.

The biggest takeaway is that the AMG One is a genuine hardcore charger. It’s not going through the motions or claiming to be something it isn’t, it just loves being thrown at corners and coming out the other side with blistering force and determination.

Final question: of all the eras of F1 engine to choose to fit in a road car, why this one?

It’s a weird one, right? This hybrid generation of engines is the least beguiling there’s ever been, the cars criticised for the way they sounded right from their first appearance in 2014. They are technologically fascinating – the most thermally efficient engines ever invented – and it means the hybrid One aligns nicely with Merc’s current product range. And that, when all’s said and done is probably what matters most to Mercedes.