Story About Hamilton's Fall At Secret MotoGP Test Revealed By Wolff
F1Saturday, 18 January 2025 at 16:59
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff shared a story of Lewis Hamilton's impressive but scary MotoGP test from 2018.
Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton loves driving anything that is fast, and it is no secret that he loves motorbikes as well.
During an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, the Mercedes team principal shared stories about how the F1 driver gifted him a rare motorbike, but also how he went behind his back to take part in a private MotoGP test.
The seven-time world champion took two Mercedes engineers, Peter Bonnington and James Vowles (who is now team principal of Williams), with him to test the Yamaha YZF-R1 at Circuito de Jerez in Spain in December 2018. Wolff said:
"[They went] 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."
Why didn't Hamilton tell Wolff about this test? F1 teams tend to forbid their driver from participating in risky activities that could result in an injury. The teams spend millions on drivers, and the ones like Lewis Hamilton are irreplaceable.
Even skiing was considered dangerous in F1 not long ago, so you can imagine Wolff wouldn't be likely to allow Hamilton to participate in the MotoGP test, where he pushed the bike and himself to the absolute limits. The team principal of Mercedes continued:
"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.'"
Fortunately, the fall wasn't so bad for British driver. But what was impressive were the lap times that he was able to set. Wolff added:
"But he was four seconds off the MotoGP pros. It's unbelievable. The body feeling that he has is what makes him a champion."
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