IDMR / Work / Mercedes-AMG F1 Concept
Project · Transport · Motorsport

Mercedes‑AMG F1 Concept.

A future Formula 1 single-seater for Mercedes-AMG Petronas — a sculptural exoskeleton of aero arms bridging the wheels, a part-enclosed cockpit, and the Silver Arrow in full team livery. Modelled in Rhinoceros, rendered in Light Tracer and brought to motion in Unreal Engine.

Year
2023Concept study
Sector
TransportFormula 1 · Concept
Scope
SoloPersonal · CAD + CGI
Software
RhinocerosLight Tracer · Unreal
About the project

A Formula 1 car, turned inside out.

This is a personal vision of where a Formula 1 car could go — the open-wheel single-seater rethought as a sculptural exoskeleton. Instead of slab wings, slender carbon arms arch over and between the wheels, tying the front and rear axles together into one continuous aero structure and leaving the suspension and floor dramatically exposed.

The cockpit is pulled into a part-enclosed teardrop that flows back into a spined engine cover, while an iridescent dragon-scale graphic runs across the upper surfaces. It wears the Silver Arrow with confidence: brushed Petronas silver, green and yellow accents, the three-pointed star on the nose, and AMG · F1 · Pirelli marks across the body.

Modelled in Rhinoceros — NURBS for the hard aero blades and shutlines, SubD for the organic cockpit-to-spine transitions — with hero stills path-traced in Light Tracer Render and composited into real circuit backplates. The motion piece was built as a cinematic in Unreal Engine.

On track · Circuits

Silver, at speed.

The car was dropped into real circuit backplates — kerbs, grandstands and grass — and shot with long, panned exposures to test how the exoskeleton reads in motion. Light catches the arched aero arms differently at every angle, which is exactly where a structure this exposed has to earn its keep.

COMPOSITE · CIRCUIT
Mercedes-AMG F1 concept, front three-quarter on kerb
Front three-quarter Climbing onto a green-and-red kerb — the front aero arms, the part-enclosed cockpit and the AMG · F1 livery all reading at once.
COMPOSITE · CIRCUIT
Mercedes-AMG F1 concept, side profile at speed
Side profile The full silhouette panned against the barriers — the continuous arc of the exoskeleton from front to rear axle is clearest from side-on.
COMPOSITE · CIRCUIT
Mercedes-AMG F1 concept, front view through a banked corner
Banking · Head-on Through a banked corner in front of a packed grandstand — the nose, the star and the spidered front structure framed dead-on.
COMPOSITE · CIRCUIT
Mercedes-AMG F1 concept, hard pan along a pit straight
Pit straight · Pan A hard panned pass along the hoardings — almost pure motion, the body dissolving into the speed it is built for.
COMPOSITE · DETAIL
Mercedes-AMG F1 concept, close detail of cockpit and aero arms
Detail · Cockpit & arms A tight crop on the part-enclosed cockpit and the dragon-scale graphic, with the carbon aero arms sweeping out toward the rear wheels.
Animation · Unreal Engine

From still to cinema.

Motion lives in Unreal. The same Rhino geometry and materials behind the stills were pushed into a real-time scene, where camera moves, lighting and atmospherics could be iterated in seconds — the concept lapping a circuit rather than sitting on a page.

UNREAL · ANIMATION
Mercedes-AMG F1 · In motion A real-time cinematic captured inside Unreal Engine — same geometry as the stills, lit and graded entirely in the engine.
Pipeline · Summary

One model, stills and motion.

Rhinoceros — the entire car was built here, from proportion blocking through to a resolved surface package. NURBS handled the hard aero blades and shutlines; SubD handled the sculptural cockpit and engine-cover spine.

Light Tracer Render — the hero stills were path-traced straight from the Rhino model, then composited into real circuit backplates and panned to sit convincingly in motion.

Unreal Engine — the same geometry and materials drove a real-time cinematic, so the concept could be seen lapping and lit in a believable, in-the-world setting.

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