Toto Wolff reveals Lewis Hamilton’s ‘unbelievable’ super bike lap time in secret testing
Toto Wolff recalled the time when Lewis Hamilton went to a 'secret testing' session with superbikes and lodged some impressive lap times.
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Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton (via Planetf1)
Lewis Hamilton raced with Mercedes for over 12 years and had naturally gotten close to the crew. Hence, during his tenure, Hamilton had enjoyed many outings with the crew, and some in the absence of team principal Toto Wolff. The Austrian recalled one such incident where the Briton went to a ‘secret’ superbike testing session without the former.
Lewis Hamilton‘s love for superbikes and MotoGP is evident from his recent venture to purchase an existing team in the two-wheeler category. Toto Wolff recalled the time when the 40-year-old conducted a testing session in Jerez alongside Mercedes’ head of strategy. Wolff highlighted that he couldn’t get a hold of the crew for over two days. The 53-year-old pointed out that the seven-time world champion surprisingly fell from the bike back then while riding at super-fast speeds.
Secretly, they didn’t tell me, they went testing Jerez with my head of strategy, who is also a keen motorbike guy, and one of the engineers. I couldn’t get hold of him for two days. Then I’m calling Lewis, my engineer picks up and he says – ‘it’s all good, all is fine, we just finished biking, and just whatever you hear, he’s all fine’… I said, ‘What happened?’. HE FELL.
Toto Wolff said on the podcast Armchair Expert.
Hamilton was thankfully safe and unhurt from the and lodged some impressive lap times in the process. Wolff recounted that the Formula 1 veteran was surprisingly only four seconds off the pace of the MotoGP pros. Hence, the Mercedes boss believed that the ‘body feeling’ of the Briton was something that made him a world champion.
But he was four seconds off the MotoGP pros only. No, it’s unbelievable. The body feeling that he has is what makes him a champion.
Toto Wolff added.
Lewis Hamilton ‘faster than most amateurs’ on the MotoGP track
Lewis Hamilton has a thrill for fast speeds as he wasn’t afraid of riding the superbikes around the circuit at colossal speeds. Michael van der Mark who accompanied Hamilton that day recalled how the latter drove the bike.
Van der Mark claimed that the 40-year-old was not at all afraid of entering the challenging curves at high speeds. Although the Briton was around seven seconds slower than the Yamaha WSBK drivers, he was faster than a majority of the amateurs in the sport.
[Lewis] was not afraid at all. We told him to slow down. He was not afraid and tried to face the curves as quickly as possible. He was about seven seconds slower than us Yamaha WSBK drivers. But he was faster than most amateurs on the track.
Michael van der Mark said on the Armchair Expert podcast.
MotoGP and Formula 1 might converge soon as Liberty Media pushes the bid to purchase the sport forward. Hamilton’s current love for the motorbike sport might increase multiplefold after the audiences of the two sports combine. Hence, the 40-year-old would continue his ambition to purchase a team in the two-wheeler category while performing his best at Formula 1 as well.
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Aditya Pandya
(1446 Articles Published)