Refinish specialist Spies Hecker has provided a fascinating behind the scenes look at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Paint Shop in Brackley, to show how the stunning finishes on the Formula One cars are produced and how the process differs from a normal bodyshop.

As four-time FIA Formula One World Constructors’ Champions, everything Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport does has performance and precision at its heart. Spies Hecker has been an integral partner to the team for more than four years, providing the paint on the previous championship winning Silver Arrows cars.

Andrew Moody, Head of Paint and Graphics for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport says, “As you would expect, much of what we do in the Paint Shop is competitively sensitive. For example the precise process and the application techniques we have honed over the years are closely guarded secrets, but I can share some interesting details that refinishers operating in a general bodyshop might find surprising.”

As the only team in the pit lane to have a livery with complex colour gradients and fades, Andrew’s team of ten painters in the Paint Shop has a massive amount of work to do on each component. The team works with a complex colour combination. This includes, a Permahyd® Hi-TEC 480 basecoat highly reflective silver colour called Stirling Silver, named after Sir Stirling Moss who drove for Mercedes-Benz in 1955, black, and four additional silver tones, graded one to four, none of which are commercially available. These have to be applied in such a way that the fade is imperceptible. Add to that, three different greens and two different blues for the glow lines, and the extent of the complexity starts to become apparent.

Andrew says, “It takes about 150 hours to paint a race car, with the nose and rear wing each taking about 12 hours, so the speed of paint application and its reliability is essential. Add to that, there are around 100 different components in rotation at any given time, plus all the spares that go to each race, and we are faced with a unique set of challenges, not least of which is scale. We mix Stirling Silver in 12 litre batches on our two Intelligent Head Scales and using the Phoenix colour management software. When we get down to 3 litres, we mix another 12 litres. We don’t activate it ready for use until we need it, so that it has a decent pot life.”

Each painter in Andrew’s team has four different spray guns, one for primers, one for basecoats, one for clears and one for spot repairs and regardless of the painter, each variation has the same setting, which was tested in conjunction with the Axalta Refinish Academy in Welwyn Garden City. Each spray booth has cure cycles pre-programmed for primers, basecoats and clearcoats, so that everything is handled in exactly the same way, regardless of which painters are working on a given component.”

While the finished look of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ is incredibly important, Andrew and his team are always thinking about the weight of each component. “For us everything is ultimately about weight and aerodynamics. Carbon fibre can be tricky as it is porous, so, we have to get an eye-catching finish with the minimum weight of paint, and Spies Hecker really delivers for us. The acceptable tolerances for an aerodynamic part might be 0.3mm, which would be miniscule for most refinishers, but any more for us can cause real issues,” says Andrew.

Andrew concludes, “I am sure one important thing we share with many bodyshops across Europe is that we rely on the excellent reliability, consistency and speed of application from Spies Hecker. And all this regimented process is completely worthwhile when you see the two cars looking fantastic on track on a race weekend.”