SYDNEY: The ties between Mercedes-AMG and the Australian Erebus V8 Supercars team has quietly ended. Both parties have confirmed to motoring.com.au they have no intention of renewing the two-year Customers Sports contract that expired at the end of 2014.
However, Erebus plans to continue to race the E 63 it paid Benz’s hot shop and its racing partner HWA to help it develop for V8 Supercars for the foreseeable future and at least until the new Gen2 era the category enters in 2017.
Although Erebus had been in negotiations to renew that deal at the end of 2014, the new season will see the team racing it’s E63 V8 Supercars without any technical assistance from HWA.
“Both parties have confirmed … they have no intention of renewing the two-year Customers Sports contract that expired at the end of 2014,” reports motoring.com.au.
Although HWA played a large part in the initial design and development of the V8 Supercars-spec E63, the tyranny of distance between their base in Germany and Erebus’s headquarters at Yatala saw the latter do increasingly more of its development in-house.
“There is no contract in place and the understanding is there is no real reason or need to have a contract because of the services we no longer take directly from AMG or HWA,” Ryan Maddison, Erebus Motorsport CEO, told motoring.com.au.
The Erebus E63s will continue to race in the hands of drivers Will Davison and Ash Walsh for the foreseeable future, with the Maddison affirming the team was unlikely to switch to another manufacturer before the arrival of sweeping rule changes for the 2017 V8 Supercars season.
