One of the 275 Mercedes-AMG One cars belonging to a German citizen from Oldenburg caught fire on a road in Germany and burned completely.
Very sad. Not George Russell’s is it? Mercedes AMG Project ONE on fire
Numerous videos have appeared online showing a Mercedes-AMG One catching fire and burning completely. The owner is a German citizen from Oldenburg who reported hearing a bang while driving, and shortly afterward the Mercedes-AMG One was engulfed in flames.Specialists have begun investigating the cause of the sudden fire. Mercedes-AMG confirmed to the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport that it has launched an investigation into the matter.
At this point, it is unclear where the fire started, whether from the 8.4 kWh battery or one of the electric motors. The important thing is that no one was injured.
Examining the license plate number, the car destroyed in the fire is the same one that was exhibited at Techno Classica in Essen between April 9 and 13, 2025, as noted by a user in the comments on YouTube. Initially, it was believed to be the car of F1 driver George Russell, but this is not the case, as it has a different registration number. Russell’s car is registered in Monaco and has the registration number 63, as another user pointed out.
The damage is huge because a Mercedes-AMG One costs €2.7 million plus VAT, or about €3.3 million. Of the 275 cars built, only 273 remain because another one caught fire and burned completely while being transported in a truck in May 2023.
The Mercedes-AMG One holds the record for the fastest car in the world on the Nurburgring circuit. On September 23, 2024, at 6:56 p.m., it completed the 20 km long lap in a time of 6:29.090 minutes.
The Mercedes-AMG One is one of the most complex hypercars ever built. The car’s development took no less than six years, from 2017 to 2023.
The propulsion system is incredibly sophisticated, consisting of:
– The single turbine V6 electrically driven engine corresponds to the current F1 engine. It has four camshafts controlled by spur gears. Also, to cope with high revs, the valves are actuated by pneumatic springs. The thermal engine develops 574 HP at 9000 rpm (11,000 maximum revs).
– An electric motor similar to Formula 1’s MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit Heat) of 90 kW placed between the exhaust gas turbine and the compressor turbine, directly on the turbine shaft. This is designed to accelerate the compressor turbine up to 100,000 rpm before the exhaust gas reaches the turbine.
– A second electric motor similar to the F1’s MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit Kinetic) of 120 kW, which as its name suggests also has a propulsion role, being connected directly to the crankshaft of the V6 engine via a spur gear system. This motor is powered by a high-voltage Li-Ion battery.
– Two front electric motors powered by the same Li-Ion battery, each driving the front left and right wheels separately and each delivering 120 kW at 50,000 rpm.
The total power output of the assembly is 1063 HP.
Mercedes had to solve almost impossible technical problems because an F1 engine has an idle speed of 4500-5000 rpm, which is too much for everyday traffic. Therefore, they had to reduce the idle speed to acceptable values for street driving. They also had to solve cooling problems because in everyday traffic at low speeds in the city, for example, proper cooling is needed because the airflow is lower.
We do not yet know the cause of the fire, but cooling issues could be one of the causes. Mercedes-AMG also had cooling issues with the first generation Mercedes-AMG GT.
The 4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine with turbines placed inside the V had a flap between the hood and the engine that was only activated by the airflow entering through the radiator grille. If the outside temperature was high and the car was driving at low speeds in the city, that flap would not open. The result: the engine overheated, the oil thinned, and the engine warning light and low oil level message lit up on the dashboard. Due to the thinning of the engine oil, the oil level could no longer be detected.
