| HWA AG | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Team Information | ||
| Based |   Affalterbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
| |
| Début |  2018 Ad Diriyah E-Prix
| |
| Founder | Hans Werner Aufrecht (1998)
| |
| Key People | Ulrich Fritz (C.E.O) Thomaz Aufrecht
| |
| Driver(s) |  Stoffel Vandoorne Gary Paffett
| |
| Car | Venturi VFE 05 | |
| Website | HWA AG | |
| Team Stats | ||
| Last Season | 9th (2018/19) | |
| Entires | 13 | |
| Wins | Poles | Points |
| 0 | 1 | 44 |
| Fastest Laps | 0 | |
HWA AG, otherwise known competitively as HWA Racelab, is a German engineering firm and racing team, based in Affalterbach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[1] Named for its founder Hans Werner Aufrecht, HWA entered the ABB FIA Formula E Championship in 2018/19, using powertrains manufactured by Venturi.[2]
Running Gary Paffett and Stoffel Vandoorne as their drivers, HWA entered FE at the behest of long-term partners Mercedes-Benz, although it proved to be a campaign beset by mechanical issues.[2][3] At the end of the 2018/19 season their entry was officially transferred to the new Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team for the 2019/20 campaign, although HWA would operate the new team's day-to-day operations.[4]
In July 2019 HWA announced that they would be entering the Extreme E Championship, becoming one of three founding teams for the electric off-road series.[5]
Background[]
HWA's history can be traced back beyond its foundation, for its founder Hans Werner Aufrecht, in partnership with Erhard Melcher, had a history of building engines as early as 1967.[1] Those two, together, would create AMG Motorenbau und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (Aufrecht Melcher Großaspach), which specialised in the tuning Mercedes engines for racing.[1] AMG's success would ultimately draw the attention of Mercedes' owners Daimler AG, which bought a controlling share of the engine and tuning side of the company on 1 January 1999.[1]
HWA Heroics[]
Aufrecht would retain ownership of most of the racing team, and duly founded HWA AG on 30 October 1998 as a means to continue his desire to go racing.[1] HWA would retain AMG's close ties to Mercedes, however, with Aufrecht's firm duly winning a contract to run Mercedes cars in the revived DTM in 2000.[6] It was incredibly successful period for HWA, with themselves and Mercedes claiming five of the first six DTM titles between 2000 and 2006.[6]
Because of that success, HWA would become the de facto factory team of Mercedes in a variety of series, building race engines for Formula 3 and race cars for V8 Supercars.[6] The German firm were then commissioned to run Mercedes new sportscar campaign with the SLS and Mercedes-AMG GT3s, culminating in a clean sweep of the podium in the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours.[6] Indeed, the only significant Mercedes project that HWA would not be involved in was Mercedes' Formula One return in 2010, which was instead developed "in-house" by AMG.
Formula E History[]
The HWA team revealed their maiden FE livery in October 2018.
When Mercedes announced their intentions to join the FIA Formula E Championship at the 2017 Montreal ePrix, rumours emerged that HWA would launch their own FE programme.[7] This was, in-part, due to the revelation that Mercedes would be withdrawing factory support for the DTM at the end of 2018, meaning HWA were effectively set to be without a backer in that series in 2019.[7] As a result, HWA began to seriously consider a move in FE, sending engineers and personnel to work with the Venturi Formula E Team during the 2017/18, with a view to start in the series in 2018/19.[8]
Venturi Vanguard[]
After shadowing Venturi through the 2017/18 season HWA would indeed decide to make a move into FE for 2018/19, announcing at the 2018 Berlin E-Prix that they would use a customer Venturi powertrain for their debut season.[2] HWA were offered several of Venturi's development test days in order to prepare for the 2018/19 season, hiring Mercedes factory driver Gary Paffett to spearhead their team.[2] The new squad would later capture the signature of Formula One refugee Stoffel Vandoorne ahead of the 2018 Valencia Test.[3]
It would be a difficult start for the new squad, however, recording four retirements at the opening three rounds, while failing to score at all in any of them.[9] However, the 2019 Mexico City Test proved to be crucial for the team, for after a strong run HWA scored their first points of the season at the 2019 Hong Kong E-Prix, while Vandoorne claimed their maiden pole position.[10] A double non-score followed before Vandoorne starred again in Rome, securing the team's first podium finish in a chaotic race.[11]
Vandoorne would subsequently become a regular point scorer, only failing to score at the Paris and the first New York City E-Prix.[12] Paffett, meanwhile, would only muster two points finishes, a mix of misfortune and lack of qualifying pace the Brit's ultimate downfall.[13] Come the end of the season HWA found themselves in ninth in the Championship with 44 points, ahead of established FE teams GEOX DRAGON and NIO.
Mercedes Motivators[]
At the end of the 2018/19 season HWA's entry was officially taken over by the new Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team, although HWA would effectively remain on the grid, running the new squad's day-to-day and trackside operations.[4]
Formula E Record[]
The tables below show HWA Racelab's full record in the FIA Formula E Championship.
Formula E Entries[]
The table below given and overview of HWA Racelab's entries in Formula E:
| HWA Racelab's overall Formula E Record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Official name | No. | Drivers | DC Pos. | DC Pts. | Car | TC Pos. | TC Pts. |
| 2018/19 | HWA Racelab[2]
|
5 | Stoffel Vandoorne[3]
|
16th | 35 | Venturi VFE 05 | 9th | 44 |
| 17 | Gary Paffett[14]
|
19th | 9 | |||||
Career Results[]
Listed below are the full career results of HWA Racelab:
| FIA Formula E Championship Record | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Driver | Rounds | Pos. | Pts. | ||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ||||
| 2018/19 | 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9th | 44 | |
| Vandoorne | 16th | Ret | Ret | 18th | Ret | Ret | 3rd | Ret | 9th | 5th | 10th | 13th | 8th | |||
| Paffett | Ret | Ret | 14th | 16th | 8th | Ret | Ret | 8th | 12th | 16th | 17th | 11th | 10th | |||
| Results Key | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Meaning | Symbol | Meaning | |
| 1st | Winner | Ret | Retired | |
| 2nd | Second | DSQ | Disqualified | |
| 3rd | Third | DNS | Did Not Start | |
| 7th | Points Finish | 16th | Non-Points Finish | |
| NC | Not Classified | CAN | Race Cancelled | |
| INJ | Driver Injured | Italics | Fastest Lap | |
| Bold | Pole Position | G | Group Fastest Lap | |
References[]
Videos and Images:
- @hwaag_official, '.@svandoorne will be making his Formula E debut in the 2018/19 ABB @FIAFormulaE Championship as a member of the HWA RACELAB squad.', twitter.com, (Twitter: HWA AG Official, 15/10/2018), https://twitter.com/hwaag_official/status/1051747797681299456, (Accessed 15/10/2018)
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 'HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPANY HWA AG', hwaag.com, (HWA AG, 2018), http://www.hwaag.com/en/company-en.html, (Accessed 24/05/2018)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 'Paffett to drive for HWA Racelab', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 08/10/2018), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2018/october/paffett-to-drive-for-hwa-racelab/, (Accessed 08/10/2018) Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "HWA18A" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 'Stoffel Vandoorne completes HWA RACELAB’s driver line up', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 15/10/2018), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2018/october/stoffel-vandoorne-completes-hwa-racelab-s-driver-line-up/, (Accessed 15/10/2018)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 'Mercedes EQ Formula E Team gear up for Formula E fight', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E 17/05/2018), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2018/may/mercedes-eq-formula-e-team-gear-up-for-formula-e-fight/, (Accessed 17/05/2018)
- ↑ Sam Smith, 'HWA Commits to Extreme E', e-racing365.com, (John Dagys Media, LLC., 12/07/2019), https://e-racing365.com/off-road/extreme-e/hwa-commit-to-extreme-e/, (Accessed 12/07/2019)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 'MILESTONES', hwaag.com, (HWA AG, 2018), http://www.hwaag.com/en/company-en/meilensteine-hwa-ag-en.html, (Accessed 24/05/2018)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 'Mercedes-Benz to enter Formula E in Season 6', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 24/07/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/july/mercedes-benz-to-enter-formula-e-in-season-6/, (Accessed 25/07/2017)
- ↑ 'Venturi announce partnership with HWA AG', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 30/11/2017), http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2017/november/venturi-announce-partnership-with-hwa-ag/, (Accessed 24/05/2018)
- ↑ 'Madness in Mexico sees di Grassi clinch miraculous win in epic photo finish', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 16/02/2019), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2019/february/race-report-mexico-2019, (Accessed 17/02/2019)
- ↑ 'Bird victorious in furious battle for first on Hong Kong Harbourfront', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 10/03/2019), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2019/march/race-report-hong-kong-2019, (Accessed 11/03/2019)
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedRom19R - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedNYC19R1 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedNYC19R2 - ↑ Sam Smith, 'Paffett, Wehrlein Primed for HWA Seats', e-racing365.com, (John Dagys Media, LLC., 10/09/2018), https://e-racing365.com/formula-e/wehrlein-and-paffett-primed-for-hwa-seats/, (Accessed 11/09/2018)