Mercedes-Ilmor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mercedes-Ilmor is an English-based Formula 1 engine manufacturer, owned by Mercedes-Benz. Since 1995, their engines have powered the Formula 1 cars of McLaren.

[edit] Background

Ilmor was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in 1984, as an independent British Formula One engine manufacturer. The company name was taken from the surnames of the founders. It originally started building engines for Indy cars with the money of Indycar team owner and chassis manufacturer Roger Penske.

Daimler-Benz acquired Chevrolet's 25% share of Ilmor in 1993. In 2002 Daimler-Chrysler increased its share to 55% and renamed the company Mercedes-Ilmor. In 2005 Daimler-Chrysler became the sole owner of Ilmor and renamed the company Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines Ltd.

At the same time the small Special Projects part of the company, which since 2003 had been contracted to design and build Honda's Indy Racing League engines, split away to become a separate company, owned by Mario Illien and Roger Penske. This new company, which is totally independent of Mercedes, is once again known as Ilmor Engineering Ltd.

[edit] History

In 1991 Ilmor entered Formula 1 as supplier of the ambitious Leyton House team (former March).

After some troubles Leyton House started as March team again in 1992, still using Ilmor-engines. But Ilmor also delivered engines to the Tyrrell team, that had a bad season 1991. Powered by Ilmor V10 Tyrrell scored 8 points through Andrea de Cesaris and March another 3 through Karl Wendlinger.

Ilmor already had a good name in F1, and so the Sauber sportscar-team and Mercedes-Benz that were planning their Formula One entrance together signed a deal with Ilmor. But Mercedes stepped back from the project and didn't want to give their good name for it. So on the cars there where only the letters "Concept by Mercedes-Benz" and the engine was officially called Ilmor.

But after an unexpectedly fast performance in 1993 (12 points, and it could have been more but for many reliability problems and incidents) Sauber convinced Mercedes to enter officially in 1994. Now you could read "Powered by Mercedes-Benz" on the Sauber engine-cover. In 1994 Ilmor also supplied the new Pacific GP team of Keith Wiggins with the old 1993 spec engines. Pacific had much trouble with qualifiyng the cars, in 32 attemps they only made it 7 times, although the engine was not implicated in this poor display.

For 1995 Mercedes had higher ambitions and Sauber wasn't good enough anymore. Mercedes offered Sauber a deal, but Sauber would have had to pay for an engine supply and so signed a deal with Ford. From now on Ilmor built its engines for McLaren-Mercedes.

In 2001 Paul Morgan was killed whilst landing his vintage airplane at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire. This led to Mercedes-Benz increasing their financial involvement in Ilmor, with the company being renamed Mercedes-Ilmor Ltd.

[edit] Formula one participation

Year	Team	GPs	Points
1991	Leyton House-Ilmor	16	-
1991	Leyton House-Ilmor	14	1
1991	Leyton House-Ilmor	2	-
1992	Tyrrell-Ilmor 2175A V10	16	8
1992	Tyrrell-Ilmor 2175A V10	16	-
1992	March-Ilmor 2175A V10	14	3
1992	March-Ilmor 2175A V10	11	-
1992	March-Ilmor 2175A V10	5	-
1992	March-Ilmor 2175A V10	2	-
1993	Sauber-Ilmor	16	5
1993	Sauber-Ilmor	16	7
1994	Pacific-Ilmor	5	-
1994	Pacific-Ilmor	2	-