The F1 teammates make the 1,000 horsepower AMG One look like a toy.
This is an off week for Formula 1 but Mercedes is here to help you get your racing fix. In this new video, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russell get to play with Mercedes-AMG’s newest performance cars, including the F1 engine-powered AMG One.
F1 drivers aren’t normal humans like you and I. They have the sorts of reflexes, response time, and hand-eye coordination that would embarrass even the world’s best athletes. They’re required to make precision movements at triple-digit speeds and are used to experiencing the sorts of g-forces typically only felt by fighter pilots and astronauts. So it’s always interesting to see what they can do with road cars that us mortals can buy and drive.
This video is obviously just a promotional clip for both Mercedes’ newest cars and its star drivers, who both just signed new contracts through the 2025 season. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to watch, though.
The premise of the video is a bit silly, as the two F1 drivers are given a box of keys to five different cars and have to choose the keys at random. But since all of the keys are there, you know they’re going to sample every car anyway. Obviously, both Hamilton and Russell miraculously pick the AMG One keys first and set off in a slalom.
Lewis Hamilton being Lewis Hamilton handles the multi-million dollar, 1,000 horsepower hypercar with incredible ease. He slides it through the slalom course like it’s a toy and not like it’s a road-going missile that set the production car lap record at the Nürburgring.
After the AMG One, they both jump into different cars and Hamilton gets to play around with the new AMG GT. As cool as it is, it just isn’t as good looking as its predecessor, nor does it have the same level of rockstar-like charisma. Russell hops into the AMG E63, as Hamilton says “Good luck with your four-wheel-drive, mate.”
The video is only a few minutes long but it does make me want to watch F1 drivers hoon normal cars more often. Kind of like what Hamilton himself did in Tokyo.
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