Mercedes Vision EQXX

Mercedes turns to F1 team to halve size of battery in latest electric vehicle

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Mercedes has presented a new electric vehicle concept which its Formula 1 team contributed towards.

In brief

Mercedes says it drew on the expertise of its F1 team to produce its latest roadgoing electric vehicle design with a claimed range of over 1,000 kilometres on a single charge.

Its Grand Prix and High Performance Powertrains divisions were consulted on the creation of the Vision EQXX, a four-seater concept car, which claims to draw less than 10 kWh per 100 kilometres. According to Mercedes its battery pack has 50% less volume and is 30% lighter than the equivalent in the EQS, which it launched last year.

“Vision EQXX has seen the best minds from our R&D centres work together with engineers from our Formula 1 and Formula E programmes,” said Daimler management board member Markus Schäfer. “They are proving that innovations from motorsport – where powertrains are already highly electrified – have immediate relevance for road car development.”

Pandemic could force more calendar changes – Domenicali

Lance Stroll, Racing Point, Albert Park, 2019
F1 is due to return to Australia in April
The Covid-19 pandemic could force more changes to the world championship schedule for the third year in a row, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has admitted.

A record-breaking 23 races are scheduled on the 2022 F1 calendar. These include venues which were unable to hold races in the previous two years, such as Albert Park in Australia, Marina Bay in Singapore and Suzuka in Japan. The Chinese Grand Prix is absent from the schedule for the third year in a row.

F1 will add a new race in Miami this year and Domenicali is keen to expand the calendar further, but admits the series’ plans for expansion may be frustrated by the pandemic.

“A comeback in Africa – whether in the north or south – would be great,” he told Sport 1. “How quickly this works will also depend on the situation around Covid. We must not continue to underestimate the corona pandemic. We could also have to adjust the calendar again in 2022.”

Welcome aboard, Will!

I am extremely proud to announce an important development at RaceFans for 2022. Will Wood, who became a contributor to the site back when it was still called F1 Fanatic, has been appointed as assistant editor.

His arrival is especially significant as Will is the first full-time member of staff to join the team in addition to myself. He is already hard at work expanding our coverage into new areas and ensuring that we head into the new motor racing season in better shape than ever before.

While many of our other regular RaceFans contributors will continue with us into the new year, Dieter Rencken has moved onto another project, and his final articles for us will appear in the coming weeks. We wish him all the best.

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

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Comment of the day

Last weekend’s Caption Competition winner is Neil:

Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi, 2021

Yuki tried to play it cool, but Carlos was convinced he’d found Kimi’s missing drink
Neil (@Neilosjames)

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Anne Lambert, Timi, Bosley and Gitanes!

On this day in motorsport

  • Born on this day in 1989: Future IndyCar race-winner Graham Rahal

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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45 comments on “Mercedes turns to F1 team to halve size of battery in latest electric vehicle”

  1. Congrats Will Wood on the promotion, well deserved.

    Dieter was good for a scoop, but I very rarely read his articles as they were TLDR, and a bit self aggrandizing. I’m sure he’ll do well, I’m just a dude on the internet

    1. Hopefully this means less reprinted team press release and flame bait then?

  2. oh no, sad news for Dieter, it gave a more 3D perspective to the whole narration of F1 on this site… and very interesting insights

  3. Sad to hear about Dieter, he brought good content and insights that the site otherwise lacks.

    1. Yes, him leaving should have been the highlight of this page!

  4. No more @dieterrencken? Man!

    I hope @hazelsouthwell stays put, i really enjoy her vibe the roundups!

    1. @faulty much though it may come as chagrin to some other commenters, you are definitely not getting rid of me any time soon. (and it’s nearly Formula E season again!)

      1. Good – hopefully your contribution will in fact increase

        G

  5. Really sad to hear about @dieterrencken moving on. I cancelled by Autosport membership after he moved on!

    all the very best Dieter, will look forward to your brilliant insight where ever you go to!

  6. NeverElectric
    4th January 2022, 3:56

    @dieterrencken had, for this site, what a colour commentator does in US sports, and an expert analyst in British and Antipodean sports: he brought that personal knowledge of the teams, their personnel, their histories, the actual trackside stuff and the deep insights that one cannot get from merely attending a race or even interviewing team personnel.
    It was obvious that teams trusted him, as his many scoops showed, and that particular angle of reporting will be sorely missed on this site.
    I guess Keith has seen that interest in F1 has probably peaked, even on this sit, and will be looking to broaden content to include more WRC, MotoGP, maybe SuperCars and even Nascar, alongside the sometimes half-hearted coverage of Indy and Le Mans-like series that we see here.
    That can only be a good thing, especially given the rancour that sometimes comes with the usual polarisation of F1 into (typically) two groups: pro-and-anti-, where the party to be inserted could be Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen, Alonso (not so much these days), Horner, Wolff, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, etc. Looking forward to some interesting stuff from @willwood.
    All the best to you Dieter, those were some fantastic articles. Uhambe kahle, Induna!

  7. Congratulations Will!

    Echo the thoughts of those who are sad about Dieter. His features are among the very best on this site.

  8. I enjoyed Dieter Rencken immensely during his time on this website, especially his snarky replies in the comments! Whatever he is moving on to is lucky to have him, and I’m sure he will do wonders.
    Congratulations Will, looking forward to you growing in stature!

  9. Dieter (@dieterrencken), My thanks for the many thoughtful articles you have written. My guess is the bureaucracy associated with the pandemic has made travelling from one Grand prix to another difficult and wearisome.
    I hope the path ahead is straight and smooth.

  10. Nice video from Alpha Tauri a bit back to the future vibe…..

  11. Big congratulations to @willwood.

  12. But losing @DieterRencken is a major loss for this site.
    Whilst the site is going down a slippery slope of clyck-bayt headlines and articles, it was good to have the unique reviews (and relatable replies) by Dieter to keep the quality.

    Just look at the round-up today. The headline article is a promotional article about a concept road car only because it mentions F1 in the promo text.
    What’s next? A picture of the F1 key on my keyboard?

    But maybe Will can help bring the site back to it’s old glory.
    – more technology;
    – real insights;
    – keep up with the stats and the rankings
    – bring the real daily round-up back
    – less divisive headlines and articles; just report the facts
    – discourage the overly fanatic fans on both sites

    1. I would have thought, on a technology level, that transferrable F1 tech (as has gone into the EQXX – and the new AMG hybrid powertrain – from a battery development perspective) very much fell under that heading.

      In the EQXX the materials used in the battery construction are from those researched for the F1 powertrain performance, making significant weight reductions that overall achieve a much higher energy density than previous road batteries, at 200Wh/kg. If their own stat about it being 30% lighter than the EQS battery – already a significant step up from many other EVs – is true then that means it’s 60Wh denser per kg.

      That’s a direct application of F1 technologies into a road going car that doesn’t require a team to run it. While road transfer isn’t the be all and end all of F1 R&D and the EQXX will be using materials that it wouldn’t be sustainable to mass produce a road car with, these transfers are what justifies the spending to boards (especially during a huge phase of change in the automotive sector) but also genuinely exciting, to see race car technology applied in a road-legal setting.

      The EQXX is a lot more than vapourware, it’s a real, one-off concept that will be being driven on roads – not some sort of theoretical render – so it’s an exciting application of F1’s technologies in a wider context.

      1. Exactly @hazelsouthwell,
        But then write about that, rather than sharing some images of the newest MX5/Miata – Citroen SM love child based on Lightyear One technology.

        In the EQXX the materials used in the battery construction are from those researched for the F1 powertrain performance, making significant weight reductions that overall achieve a much higher energy density than previous road batteries, at 200Wh/kg. If their own stat about it being 30% lighter than the EQS battery – already a significant step up from many other EVs – is true then that means it’s 60Wh denser per kg.

        In the old days you/Keith/Will would write a story about the overlap of technology, rather than giving some empty quotes and even leaving out a link to where we can find more info.

        The round-up was used for (and always headlined by) links to articles of the zillion other F1 (motorsports) sites. There are quite a few interesting stories on the web. And as long as this site is one of the best (least worst) out there people will come back, even if you link to the competition.

      2. Yes its great news that Mercedes have made a battery smaller for their road cars and all it took was 300 million a year to run their F1 & FE division and the loss of NOISE to f1 which, if you are a fan, rather than TV tuner in, is half the fun. Well done Mercedes, you both heart sinked F1 for the last 7 years and built the next least worst polluting way to travel around but only after legislation insisted you do. This is surely a great day.

      3. Aw, @hazelsouthwell, don’t spoil the fun of complaining about a news article in the round-up and come in with a tech savy, in detail and very solid reply that wholly justifies having this F1 related article in the round up!

        I think the tech is interesting enough to try and get a separate article going in to this in more detail, although I guess it would not be worth it for just repeating the press release without any additional information (or interviews etc)! And thanks for chipping in here.

        1. @bascb I don’t know how much interest there’d be in it but I’m probably (I hate saying this kind of thing but I think it is true) the journalist who knows most about racetrack-road transfer in the current automotive sphere, given my other job is writing about bleeding edge car tech so I could definitely do that.

          1. I would hope there would be enough interest in that article, and I agree that you are exactly the journalist with the knowledge and sources to dive into it and give us an interesting read!

          2. Just getting into your article about the car @hazelsouthwell

    2. Agreed. Dieter was able to balance and I am not sure if that function wil be filled now.
      But we will see.

    3. ian huntington
      4th January 2022, 18:01

      Commercial vehicles cannot have similar battery technology anyway because f1 cars dont actually have a battery, they use something called a “super capacitor” which has the ability to be instantly fully charged or discharged without damage and we are talking 2 seconds or less here, their only viable use in cars is here, the way racing cars can exploit them, they are also very light weight

  13. RandomMallard,
    I’ve used Python sometimes for scripting purposes only when I had to as I’m a backend developer in the Java ecosystem and I usually script using Shell for automation. I think the most important part to produce useful analysis tools for F1 is to have a data feed itself regardless of the programming language. The author here seems to have done a hell of a job providing a ready to use library to load the data.

    Thanks a lot for sharing !

  14. Thank you to everyone for your very kind words!

    I started off as a commenter here over ten years ago. I am a race fan, just like all of you. I look forward to writing the kinds of articles and exploring the stories that I would want to read on here.

    Thanks to @keithcollantine for trusting me. I’m really looking forward to working more with the fantastic group of people who I have really enjoyed writing alongside these last few years, @hazelsouthwell, Ida, R.J., Bradley and Dan.

    1. @willwood Congratulations. Really looking forward to more of your articles.

    2. Congratulations Will!

  15. Thanks for this, I’m having a go at it now.

  16. Great stuff RandomMallard, thank you !

    It looks like relying on a non-official api though, https://ergast.com/mrd/ but still definitely having a go on this !

    1. @spoutnik Yh I’m not 100% sure on the source of the API. It definitely uses ergast for before 2018, but it appears to be pulling the data since then from the F1 live timing (2018 would coincide with the launch of F1TV and the live timing associated with that is my guess). Regardless, it still appears to be a fantastic resource.

  17. Dieter will be a big loss to Racefans. I appreciated his analysis and perspective on the business and politics of F1. Does anyone at Racefans have the experience, knowledge and contacts to write on these topics or is that the end?
    Still, I will continue to read his work on another site (it lacks a community) where he is also involved in a very good podcast.

    1. and where is that?

  18. For now, I’m confident the race calendar will remain as scheduled since the Chinese GP cancellation.
    The other two-year cancellations (Australian, Canadian, Singapore, & Japanese GPs) should finally manage, though, especially if the one scheduled for early-season survives.

  19. Congratulations @willwood on your appointment. Then also may I offer my best regards to @dieterrencken on his new role.

    I will miss Dieter’s in depth analysis of some of the issues and politics of F1 that I have not really seen anywhere else. They have been very insightful.

    As others have alluded to, I do feel that some of the stories on the site in the last year or two have become a bit tabloid level shall we say. The repeating of some of the same controversies over again or comments of F1 figures just to attract attention and controversy. And the level of discourse from contributors has been declining in my opinion. I have had to report three comments on here in the last couple of months which have been really vile. That’s never happened in the past 9 years.

  20. I have an opinion
    4th January 2022, 12:42

    I wonder if Hamilton has made a “me or Masi” ultimatum and is maintaining his silence until he gets an answer?

    Dieter copped a lot of flak for some of his recent articles. I was mightily impressed with his Sir Frank Williams obit. (yes, Keith’s was very good too).

    1. Interesting theory. I hope Hamilton hasn’t, because the only way to deal with someone that gives an ultimatum is to choose against them, no matter who they are and what they’ve accomplished. The only responsible outcome is to remove anyone who’s ego thinks they can make outrageous demands.

      I doubt that has happened, because no matter how large his ego, he’s an intelligent man and knows F1 is a machine that moves on, as the loss of many of its past super stars has very little impact on F1. Doomsayers always lament the loss of ‘famous driver’ like it’s now only a matter of time before the house of cards falls, but every past ‘famous driver’ with a gazillion fans has had those fans quickly transfer to ‘exciting prospect and future world champ’

      When Hamilton eventually leaves, his particular fans will transition to someone else. Same all with all of them.

      1. I seriously doubt Hamilton is not smarter than such a demand @jasonj.

  21. Sad to see Dieter go – some of his pieces were quite brilliant and thought-provoking (imho). Coincidentally, I was telling a friend of mine only recently that it appeared to me that as far as this site was concerned, Keith appeared to have been quite disappointed with Masi’s actions in Abu Dhabi while Dieter was the opposite. Just a random conversation following one of the many articles posted about that race (a poll if I recall correctly). Interesting to see that he’s moving on now.

  22. Dieter – I haven’t been keeping up with your reports this season as my life has got a bit busy and F1 has taken a back seat.

    I genuinely thank you for all the inside gossip and details that you have so professionally served up to us and I wish you all the best in your future endeavours Sir.

    Will Wood? …. is that a made up name? …. he has big boots to fill!

  23. While Dieter will be missed for his experience and insight, the bias and accusatory tone in his post-Abu Dhabi column see him leaving with dry eyes from me. It will be interesting to see where the site goes on its next chapter without the paddock-insider content. Perhaps back to more statistical and technical analysis?

    Looking forward to next year, best of luck.

Comments are closed.