Bottas to drive Group A Mercedes at Adelaide

Bottas will drive the former DTM Mercedes 190E – one of the two Bob Jane T-Mart sponsored Group A Mercedes that raced in the 1986 Bathurst 1000 – in the Touring Car Legends category.

It’s not the actual car that Miedecke raced at Bathurst that year. He had originally been paired with Denny Hulme in team's other Mercedes (#41), which the pair drove in practice and qualifying, but on the Saturday night before the race the team decided to swap the driver lineups.

With the sister #14 Mercedes of Franz Klammer and Jorg van Ommen suffering a seemingly incurable misfire, the decision was taken to switch the ‘star’ names, Klammer and Hulme, into the #41.

According to Miedecke, the #14 car was in a higher state of tune than the #41 – and, happily for him, the team had managed to cure the misfire by race morning.

Having been shifted across into the faster of the two Mercedes, Miedecke was looking forward to a strong run in the race, in what was also his Bathurst debut. Sadly, their day was done before the end of the first lap – van Ommen started the race but the Merc copped a terminal hit from behind on the opening lap.

The Merc's appearance at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival with Valtteri Bottas marks a return to the streets of Adelaide for the car, as it raced in the Group A support events at the Australian Grand Prix at the Adelaide Parklands circuit in the late ‘80s.

Bottas raced for the Sauber F1 team last year but was unable to secure a drive for 2025. Instead, he’s been signed to the Mercedes Formula 1 team in a test driver role.

The Finn joins other F1 personalities at the 2025 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival, including Damon Hill, Guenther Steiner, Thierry Boutsen, Alan Jones, David Brabham and TV commentator David Croft.

The 2025 Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival will feature a range of categories, from F1, V8 Supercars and historic touring cars, sportscars, bikes and more with the action non-stop without a break in track activity at any stage of the day.

Off track there will be car displays, kids' zones, bars and food trucks, exhibitors and traders, activations and more, in a picnic in the park setting.