Mercedes had an embarrassing blunder during the grid walk at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, calling Lewis Hamilton by the wrong name.
Sky Sports F1 presenter Martin Brundle waited patiently to interview Shaquille O'Neal as the NBA legend posed for photos with the Red Bull team, but despite Brundle's best efforts at questioning, the 7 ft 1 in superstar merely replied "Lewis Hamilton baby" before walking off.
The encounter was entertaining enough in itself as Brundle admitted he required a longer microphone cable to interview the colossal basketball hall of famer, but it was made even more iconic by Mercedes' social media accounts giving a strangely spelled shoutout to the moment.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the Mercedes social media admin wrote: "Shaquille O'Neal said “Lewis Hamtion, baby” and we really felt that."
As expected, eagle-eyed F1 fans jumped on the typo, making jokes like "Lewis Hamtion is my favourite driver" while also questioning while the account had not edited the tweet to spell Hamilton's name correctly.
Shaquille O'Neal said “Lewis Hamtion, baby” and we really felt that. 🙏
Other Mercedes fans were more entertained by the fact that O'Neal had shouted Hamilton's name just after being wined and dined by the Red Bull team while taking photographs with Christian Horner and other key team members.