[bsa_pro_ad_space id=14]
Valtteri Bottas drove for the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team in five seasons, and now he has a hypercar powered by the engine which helped him win 10 Grands Prix.
Formula One star Valtteri Bottas has taken delivery of his Mercedes-AMG One – a $2.75 million hypercar powered by an engine derived from the Finnish driver’s former racing car.
The Mercedes-AMG One is powered by a 782kW 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine and hybrid system from the company’s championship-winning Formula One race cars, which Bottas raced between 2017 and 2021 – taking victory in 10 races, which included the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
In a post uploaded to social media platform Instagram, Bottas – who now drives for the Alfa Romeo Formula One team and spent his off-season Down Under with South Australian girlfriend, Tiffany Cromwell, a professional cyclist – showed off his metallic blue hypercar, reflecting the colours of the Finnish flag and his racing helmet.
Just 275 examples of the AMG One are due to be built, and Bottas is one of at least three Formula One stars to order the hypercar – alongside seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and now-retired 2016 title winner Nico Rosberg (who Bottas replaced at Mercedes F1 in 2017).
While the Mercedes-AMG One is celebrated as a Formula One car with a numberplate – having claimed a new lap record for production cars at the Nurburgring – its development faced numerous setbacks since the Project One concept was unveiled in 2017.
As previously reported, Mercedes-Benz faced an uphill battle in trying to produce a road-legal vehicle powered by a Formula One car’s engine – a task which CEO Ola Källenius joked must have been approved when the company’s bosses were “drunk”.
After a five-year gestation period, the One entered production in August 2022 – with eight of the 275 examples expected to be bound for Australian owners, despite not being road-legal in Australia due to the car’s left-hand-drive layout.
In May 2023, one example of the Mercedes-AMG One burnt down while being transported in a car trailer in the UK, resulting in both the hypercar and the trailer it was being transported in were destroyed as a result of the fire.
According to reports at the time by The Sun, Mercedes-Benz was investigating the fire, though it was suggested the car’s battery pack – which powers its hybrid system – was the source of the blaze given the engine was off at the time
Read more about Jordan Mulach
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=15]