Watch Lewis Hamilton & Valtteri Bottas Race Their Boss in AMG GT Rs

Two F1 drivers hit the track in AMG GT Rs with their Mercedes-AMG Petronas team boss Toto Wolff for a driver shoot-out.

The AMG GT R is an absolute beast of a car, particularly when it’s let off the leash on the track. There’s no better out there to tame the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 GT R than a couple of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team drivers. For this Beat The Boss YouTube video on the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team YouTube channel, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are pitted against Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff at the Silverstone racing circuit in the UK for some wheel to wheel action.

It plays out much as expected for the timed laps, despite Wolff showing off the talent that secured him a first-place victory at the 24 Hours Of Le Mans. What makes the video compelling is how much fun they’re all having, and that all three drivers wore microphones so they could talk to each other. At one point, Wolff is making excuses and complains there’s no grip. Hamilton is quick to reply, telling him: “There is grip Toto. You just need to know how to use it.”

Hamilton dominated the first lap with a time of 1:11.61 seconds. Bottas followed him in at 1:12.78, while Wolff delivered a surprisingly respectable time of 1:13.00. That’s surprisingly respectable because Wolff is retired from racing, yet still only a couple of seconds off Hamilton’s pace. That’s no mean feat when you consider Hamilton to be at the peak of his driving career and in a heated battle to win his seventh F1 championship.

The highlight of the video is the wheel-to-wheel race at the end. The producers use the timed laps as qualifiers, then reverse the grid for Wolff’s benefit. Hamilton and Bottas decide to toy with Wolff, and they all end up having so much fun they decide to go out for some more laps. Hamilton teases Wolff again, saying: “These have to be the deciders, Toto. You need to try and make some of the corners because you missed every single one.”

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Ian Wright

Ian Wright has been a professional writer for two years and is a regular contributor to Corvette Forum, Jaguar Forum, and 6SpeedOnline, among other auto sites.

His obsession with cars started young and has left him stranded miles off-road in Land Rovers, being lost far from home in hot hatches, going sideways in rallycross cars, being propelled forward in supercars and, more sensibly, standing in fields staring at classic cars. His first job was as a mechanic and then trained as a driving instructor before going into media production.

The automotive itch never left though, and he realized writing about cars is his true calling. However, that doesn’t stop him from also hosting the Both Hand Drive podcast.

Ian can be reached at bothhanddrive@gmail.com