Lewis Hamilton participates in testing the new Mercedes-AMG Project One (by watching)

The sextuple champion of Formula One had a good look at the acceleration chops of the forthcoming Mercedes-AMG Project One road-legal supercar. Watch the video for details.

The British racing driver was suitably impressed with what he saw and heard, saying that the development car ‘accelerated like a bullet and sounded just like a Formula projectile.’

The detailed technical specs for the Project One haven’t arrived yet, but we know already that it is going to receive a hybrid powertrain based on five electric motors and a Formula-spec 1.6-liter V6 mill with 11,000 RPM at the crank. The resulting output remains to be announced, but more than 1,000 hp (750 kW) is pretty much guaranteed.

The company admits it had much trouble adapting the turbo engine to the needs of the road-legal vehicle. Issues included overheating, lack of start/stop system implementation, and non-conformity with the emission standards. Fortunately, all of this is now in the past, and the first super hybrids will start shipping in 2021, the AMG Marketing Director claims. The entire production run of 275 copies has already been sold out in pre-orders, despite the €2,300,000 starting price tag.