Lewis Hamilton and his former Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas took part in a race against team principal Toto Wolff around Silverstone.
2020 was a time when Mercedes didn’t have any competition from other teams on the grid. They entered that season having won six consecutive Constructors’ and Drivers’ Titles and were on top of the world.
No one can blame the Brackley based outfit for having a race among themselves, just for fun! This took place around Silverstone circuit ahead of the start of the campaign. Bottas and Hamilton were up against Wolff, and all three of them were behind the wheel of a Mercedes-AMG GT R Coupé.
Wolff evidently looked less confident before they took to the track. “This is not my specialty,” the Austrian insisted. Nevertheless, Wolff and his two drivers set out for qualifying around the circuit.
Just like in most F1 races back then, Hamilton outqualified Bottas. The Finn set a time of 1:12.780, whereas Hamilton set a time of 1:11.610. To everyone’s surprise however, the boss wasn’t too far behind. Wolff set a lap time of 1:13.000. The Mercedes boss however, convinced them to start the race by setting up a reverse grid.
Mercedes posted the replay of this race on their YouTube channel.
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas ‘playing with’ Toto Wolff
Before the start of the race, Bottas talked about the strategy he and Hamilton were going to adopt. “Hoping to get a good start, and then we can play with Toto,” the now Alfa Romeo driver said.
In spite of starting the race on reverse grid, it didn’t take long for the Mercedes duo to outjump their boss on the start. Hamilton and Bottas didn’t compete with one another. Instead, they allowed their boss to get close to them, only to toy around with him furthermore.
It’s fair to say that neither driver showed their real skill behind the wheel that afternoon. They allowed Wolff to follow them closely and set up an exciting finale to the fun outing.
Bottas overtook his teammate on the final lap, taking the win and Hamilton followed him in second. Wolff, who was allowed to follow them closely behind came last out of the three drivers.
When asked about how good Wolff was, Bottas admitted that he did get good exits of some of the corners. Hamilton on the other hand trolled him by saying, “He’s very good at blocking. I’ll leave you some space, like Max.”
