Mercedes-AMG is going through an enormous problem as its collaboration with HWA AG concludes on the finish of November. Hans-Werner Aufrecht’s firm has not solely dealt with all the model’s manufacturing facility racing programmes outdoors of Components 1 and Components E, nevertheless it has additionally been accountable for your entire GT3 mission as a companion since 2010.
It’s understood that the transition from HWA to the in-house Affalterbach Racing GmbH division, which has been beneath growth since 2024 and is an entirely owned subsidiary of AMG, shouldn’t be precisely going easily.
“They’re nonetheless within the preliminary levels,” stated an business insider. “It is all new individuals, and there is a lack of organisation.”
None of this could come as a shock. Affalterbach Racing GmbH (AFB for brief) faces a herculean process: from 2026 onwards, it won’t solely be accountable for constructing all Mercedes-AMG buyer racing automobiles, together with help and overhauls, but additionally for creating the model’s next-generation GT3 contender.
This comes at a time when AMG CEO Michael Schiebe is leaving Mercedes’ high-performance division, with a successor but to be named. “Many are solely now realising every thing HWA has truly performed for Mercedes,” stated one other supply near the German marque.
Is Mercedes-AMG ready for the transition?
“Because the founding of Affalterbach Racing GmbH final yr, the event has been progressing steadily,” stated Christoph Sagemuller, head of motorsport at Mercedes-AMG, describing the present standing. “We’re very glad, on schedule, and pleased with the workforce we now have constructed up to now.”
This workforce consists “primarily of extremely skilled workers from the motorsport sector.”
Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Crew WINWARD Mercedes-AMG GT3
Photograph by: Markus Toppmöller
Rumours counsel it now has over 100 members, plus subcontractors. Properly-informed sources point out that the preliminary plan was for a a lot smaller workforce. Moreover, the corporate continues to be promoting positions. Barely fewer than 40 persons are stated to be coming from HWA, which is sensible given their expertise in buyer racing.
“At Affalterbach Racing GmbH, we’re staffed as deliberate for the present timeframe,” Sagemuller acknowledged, denying any miscalculation concerning the focused variety of workers. Nonetheless, he requested for understanding that “we’re protecting the precise figures to ourselves”.
It has been reported that the swap from HWA AG to AFR GmbH might result in shortages within the coming months, concerning the availability of spare components for the roughly 300 AMG buyer racing automobiles presently in use. Subsequently, the groups have been knowledgeable prematurely to make sure they’ve ample components to take care of operations.
“It is regular for there to be some preliminary friction,” defined Thomas Jager, Mercedes-AMG’s sporting director for DTM. “There are lots of components; a listing must be taken. We’re speaking about in all probability 14,000 to fifteen,000 half numbers. It takes time to depend all of them.”
The largest problem, Jager clarified, is “getting the programs up and operating once more”. Affalterbach Racing GmbH, which is able to take over from January 2026 after a one-month transition interval, may also take over HWA’s spare components vans, which ought to guarantee a clean transition.
Requested when the operations might return to normality, Jager replied: “I believe the system will probably be operating completely once more for the European season. We undoubtedly need to ship the identical top-notch service sooner or later as earlier than – as our clients are used to, and deserve.”
However are the mandatory warehouses and workshops for spare components and help presently accessible? In Affalterbach, the place AFR GmbH is supposedly headquartered, these are presently nowhere to be discovered. Nonetheless, Sagemuller believes that the corporate is “very nicely outfitted when it comes to house”.
“There may be roughly 2,000 sq. meters of workshop house accessible for service and repairs, in addition to 600 sq. meters of workplace workspace,” he added. “And naturally, this additionally consists of the mandatory instruments to ensure acceptable service for the prevailing automobiles.”
Nonetheless, this house is accessible not in Affalterbach, however in Unterturkheim, about 20km away, the place the Mercedes-Benz plant is situated and the place the AMG subsidiary workforce is presently housed.
That is anticipated to stay the case for over a yr, till the deliberate buildings are constructed and prepared for occupancy. The brand new spare components warehouse is deliberate for Magstadt – about 25km from Unterturkheim and 40km from Affalterbach.
#57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje
Photograph by: Jake Galstad / Lumen by way of Getty Photographs
Will HWA stay a Mercedes-AMG service supplier regardless of cut up?
Requested the place the overhaul of engine and transmission components will probably be carried out, Sagemuller stated: “These providers are managed by Affalterbach Racing GmbH.”
He additionally revealed that “the engine overhauls are carried out immediately at Mercedes-AMG itself”. That is an space for which HWA was additionally thought-about a candidate.
Affalterbach Racing GmbH continues to be searching for a service supplier for gearbox overhauls and HWA is among the potential candidates for the contract regardless of the cut up with AMG.
Hans-Werner Aufrecht’s firm, which has had increasingly orders withdrawn from Mercedes-AMG because the manufacturing facility’s exit from the DTM on the finish of 2018, though this has since been compensated for with different orders, stays open to additional cooperation.
“We remorse that we are able to not organise buyer racing for AMG. In spite of everything, we developed the world from 2010 to 2025 with very profitable and dependable automobiles and, for my part, an unparalleled aftersales and buyer help system, and we grew collectively,” HWA Managing Director Martin Marx instructed Motorsport.com.
“Though there isn’t a longer a contractual foundation, we stay accessible to our neighbours as a companion and repair supplier for help providers. We’re comfortable to proceed working for AMG, in any case, we share the identical identify.”
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