Watch: Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon go racing before the 2023 F1 Japanese GP race weekend begins

Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon were seen racing remote control cars in the Japanese GP paddock in Suzuka ahead of going into the press conference for the weekend.

In a video doing the rounds of social media, the two F1 drivers were seen killing some time ahead of their media duties and enjoying their time competing against each other with remote-controlled cars.

During the press conference, Lewis Hamilton was asked about the activity with Ocon and he said:

"Yeah, so Esteban and I had planned a while ago, that while we’re here, we’ll get our remote control cars together and have a bit of a race in the pit lane. For me, it was very reminiscent of when I was a kid on Blue Peter, and it was really cool, because we all share, more in common than we probably think, other than the fact that we're pure racers."

He added:

"But it's very rare that we all get to do things like that, so it was it was fun. But that's what our race was when I was a kid. I raced electric and petrol and it was Kyosho. It's basically an evolution of the car that you'll see, like Senna had and I had the same car as Senna when I was younger. And he's mega at it."

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Lewis Hamilton previews his Japanese GP weekend

Lewis Hamilton has said that he was a bit less optimistic about having the same close racing that they experienced in Singapore as he believes that it will be difficult to catch Red Bull this weekend.

The Mercedes driver said:

"And I think this weekend, I don't anticipate having the performance we had in the last race. But we've worked very hard to continue to try and push the envelope that we have. So, I'm hoping that we're not terribly far off this weekend.

He added that he believes that there is a possibility that the Austrian team can be 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the grid:

"I would think that, if they're not 30 seconds ahead, like they have done in the past then something's up! But no, I think that as Checo said, it was obviously a difficult weekend, the last one, but their car should be phenomenal here."

It will be interesting to see which team would be behind Red Bull in second position as it keeps changing every single weekend and Lewis Hamilton would hope that he could get another podium and help the team move ahead of their rivals.