Watch Lewis Hamilton Challenge F1 Boss to Track Duel in Mercedes-Benz 190E DTM Racers
For an extra dash of nostalgia, the footage of Hamilton versus Wolff has been stitched together with retro 8-bit graphics from a ’90s video game.
When you've dominated your sport for five years and won 90 percent of the Grand Prix contests near the current season's halfway point, you may have an excuse to cut loose a bit. Such is the case for Mercedes-AMG who, with star drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, has dominated Formula 1 in 2019 thus far with only one race slipping out of its grasp in Austria. Now, as the German manufacturer heads to its home GP at the Hockenheimring, team boss Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton are all but tense as they duke it out on-track in a pair of Cosworth-tuned Mercedes-Benz 190E DTM cars.
Filmed with retro 8-bit video game graphics, the touring car duel was posted to Mercedes-AMG F1's Instagram Tuesday morning. There, you'll find five-time champion Hamilton taunting and toying with Wolff, who's quite the racer in his own right.
The two put on a stellar display of picture-perfect apex-hits and heel-toe downshifts, reminiscing of the days when the classic DTM cars battled the likes of Audi and BMW around Hockenheim's 17-turn layout in the early '90s. Collectively, it's a track steeped in history—perfect for these throwback machines which many owe their early love of racing to.
The Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II was a small-but-mighty machine launched in 1990 to best the company's German rivals on their home turf. With north of 360 horsepower coming from a naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine, it was a zingy sports sedan that could hit 185 miles per hour if it were given enough room. Thanks to zero electronic aids and analog-only driver input, it was a pure race car in every sense of the word that people often hold as the holy grail alternative to the E30 BMW M3.
In the end, Wolff actually comes away victorious, but we've got a feeling Hamilton let him off with this one. The Brit has won three times during his F1 career at the Hockenheim track, and he stands a decent chance at increasing that number as he comes off a victory at Silverstone two weeks ago.
