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Mercedes-AMG GT and C63 to serve as F1 safety, medical cars

Mercedes has spent nearly 20 years providing the safety and medical cars for Formula 1, so it was hardly a shock when the company announced that the new Mercedes-AMG GT and C63 AMG S Estate would serve as ushers in the F1 circus. The two turbocharged monsters replace the old SLS AMG safety car and C63 AMG wagon medical car, which have served in one trim or another since 2010 and 2008, respectively. The biggest change for either car is, of course, the lightbar. It's been mounted atop a carbon-fiber hoop on the AMG GT that Mercedes says optimizes airflow to that big rear wing. Meanwhile, the location of the lights was confirmed via wind tunnel testing. In the cockpit, two iPads allow the AMG GT's passenger, fuel analyst Peter Tibbetts, to monitor the race's world feed while also keeping an eye on race data. The tablets stay connected via an in-car, wireless internet connection. Changes for the C63 S wagon are less extensive. It gets a lightbar and the usual signaling systems in the headlights and taillights, while the cargo compartment includes both a respirator and a defibrillator, to manage more serious medical emergencies. As with the AMG GT, the C63 is finished in F1's traditional silver safety/medical car livery. Beyond these changes, both vehicles are just as potent as those that can be purchased at dealers. Both cars feature a 4.0-liter, 510-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V8, while a seven-speed AMG Speedshift transmission dispatches the grunt with lightning-quick shifts. So equipped, the AMG GT will hit 60 in 3.8 seconds and the C63 can get there in 4.1 seconds. Check out the full gallery of both cars, decked out in their F1 liveries, available up top. Related Video: Mercedes-AMG GT S and C 63 S in action for the 2015 Formula 1® season: Maximum safety, maximum performance Affalterbach, Mar 06, 2015 Baptism of fire on the race track: The GT S and the C 63 S – the new high-performance cars from Mercedes-AMG - provide for maximum safety in the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship™. At the first Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia (12 to 15 March 2015) the GT S will debut on the race track as the Official Safety Car of the FIA Formula One World Championship™. As the Official Medical Car of the FIA Formula One World Championship™, the C 63 S Estate will be on hand to provide fast emergency medical care. Mercedes-AMG has been active continuously at the pinnacle of motorsport since 1996.

2016 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix recap: another wild show on and off track

Normally we use this space to provide a lengthy recap of the weekend's Formula 1 race, but we're going to try something different since most folks reading this know what happened at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday. Instead, we'll alight on what we saw as the big issues in and around the race. Let us know what you think in Comments. Proper qualifying is back. Thank goodness. It only took a month of embarrassment to fix it. And so is passing! For the third race in a row, big performance improvements at the ten teams behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas and a wider tire selection at this race graced us with opening stints filled with dicing cars. Seeing the McLarens on screen doesn't make us cringe. Manor doesn't only make the global feed when it's being lapped. We've been complaining about parade races for so long that we forgot excitement was possible without rain or wholesale regulation changes. Yes, Mercedes is still the king of the jungle, but there are some other proper midfield beasts on the hunt, too. Malfunctions up and down the grid did help the show in Shanghai, like Lewis Hamilton suffering perpetual troubles, Nico Hulkenberg's runaway front wheel which red-flagged Q2, and Sebastian Vettel's and Kimi Raikkonen's flubbed hot laps in Q3 that let Daniel Ricciardo slip by into second on the grid. Come race day things went all Grand Theft Auto at Turn 1 on the opening lap, sending some of the best cars to the pits. Then came Ricciardo's puncture while leading, then came the Safety Car – all by Lap 5. Nico Rosberg got 38 seconds of airtime on the way to victory – at the start and the finish, and that happened to be his margin of victory, too – otherwise he was a ghost. Everyone else was struggling and juggling. Rosberg's win at the Bahrain Grand Prix put the German at five consecutive victories going back to last year's Mexican Grand Prix. The history books show that any driver who's won five straight contests has gone on to win the championship. With his triumph in China, the German has won the season's first three races, the history books again show that the other nine drivers who've pulled that off have gone on to win the championship. Rosberg, 36 points ahead of his teammate in the standings, is having none of it. He said of the other victors, "But they didn't have Lewis Hamilton as their team-mate." Perhaps Mercedes was right not to make an engine deal with Red Bull last season.

The Mansory Speranza proves that money can buy taste and good sense...

...Just kidding.
No one in their right mind has ever accused German tuners Mansory of being subtle. So, when our Geneva team wandered across the Mansory Speranza - A Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen that has been denuded of its roof and spackled inside with quilted leather and red carbon fiber ­- they didn't ask a lot of existential questions. Why does the Speranza exist? Because Germans are weird sometimes, that's why.
Forget for a moment that you'll have to pay Mansory hundreds of thousands of euros (we're guessing, no pricing information has been revealed) for the privilege of converting your G-Class into something that looks like a Suzuki Samurai, and prepare to be impressed by the details. The tuning house has increased the output of the Mercedes V8 to a healthy 700 horsepower and 668 pound-feet of torque. The wheels are 24-inches, and wear almost unbelievable 305-section ultra-high performance Vresdestein tires. Carbon fiber can be found nearly everywhere one looks, including making up the housing for the spare tire. Oh, and there are leather pillows for the backseats... no word on whether they're standard or optional, but we're looking in to it.