{"id":450511,"date":"2026-01-31T23:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450511\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T23:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:40:12","slug":"mercedes-unveil-striking-safety-car-look-ahead-of-2026-f1-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450511\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes unveil striking Safety Car look ahead of 2026 F1 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes has unveiled its new red safety car, which will be the sole car on duty throughout the 2026 Formula 1<\/a> season.For the first time since 2021, Mercedes <\/a>will once again supply the sole official safety car, ending the rotation with Aston Martin and its Vantage that had remained in place up to last season.<\/p>\n

Powering the Black Series is a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 mounted in a front-mid layout and combined with a dry-sump lubrication system, a configuration designed to cope with sustained track running.<\/p>\n

The unit produces in the region of 720\u2013730 horsepower and around 800 Nm of torque, placing it among the most potent V8 engines ever fitted to a road-legal Mercedes. The performance numbers mirror its intent, with the 0\u2013100 km\/h sprint covered in roughly 3.2 seconds and a top speed of about 325 km\/h in road or circuit specification.<\/p>\n

\"Safety-Car-Announcement-IMAGE-1\"\/<\/p>\n

Photo: Mercedes<\/p>\n

It will continue to be supported by the AMG GT 63 S 4MATIC+ as the medical car, while Aston Martin\u2019s DBX will no longer appear on track.<\/p>\n

This marks a milestone season for Mercedes and the Formula 1<\/a> Safety Car partnership, which reaches its 30-year anniversary after first appearing at the 1996 French Grand Prix on June 30.<\/p>\n

The German manufacturer also hit another landmark in Austin last year, celebrating its 500th Grand Prix as the championship\u2019s official Safety Car supplier.<\/p>\n

Another Mercedes-linked milestone will be marked in Melbourne in March, when long-time Safety Car driver Bernd Mayl\u00e4nder is set to reach 500 Grands Prix in the role, more than two decades after first taking the wheel back in 2000.<\/p>\n

Christoph Sagem\u00fcller, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, commented: \u201cSafety is an absolutely central value of our brand and our products. That is why we have been providing the Official FIA F1<\/a>\u00ae Safety and Medical Car in Formula 1<\/a>\u00ae since 1996.\u201cFrom the 2026 season onwards, the FIA F1<\/a> Official Cars will once again bear the star at all F1\u00ae events. In this way, we will continue to make an active contribution to safety in the premier class of motorsport.He finally added: \u201cFor Mercedes-AMG, Formula 1<\/a> is not only a sporting platform, but also an environment in which the performance, reliability, and safety of our vehicles become visible under extreme conditions.\u201dWant to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1<\/a> paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes has unveiled its new red safety car, which will be the sole car on duty throughout the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,189983,85],"class_list":["post-450511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mercedes-amg-f1-team","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}