F1 News
Mercedes decide to stop order further engine part from bankrupt supplier
- Ludo van Denderen
Mercedes do not need to fear problems after the bankruptcy of the company - Reaction Engines - that supply turbochargers for the team's power units. Arrangements have been made by the German team, therefore, they will receive the necessary hardware for the 2025 season. Moreover, the team have already decided to stop using that turbocharger entering the 2026 season.
The turbocharger currently used by the team is an air-water cooler. The role of this part is to force additional air into the ICE (internal combustion engine). Most F1 constructors use a different type, because the air-to-air version is slightly slimpler. Mercedes' version is four times more efficient.
Mercedes supplier had frequent financial problems
This turbocharger is supplied by Reaction Engines, a company that previously also had financial problems. Those were previously solved by external investors, but in October, they could not find another investor.
170 workers (out of 208) in Oxfordshire were already told they would be let go before the start of November. The company tried to gather more money to continue, but a last-ditch effort to secure investment failed and as a result, the company was declared bankrupt.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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