Lewis Hamilton’s “Secret” 2018 Superbike Test
In 2018 Lewis Hamilton took part in a superbike test with Alex Lowes and Michael Van Der Mark, which turns out was a secret according to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff
Lewis Hamilton secretly took part in a superbike test in 2018, during which he crashed, but furthermore, it took place without his former Mercedes F1 team boss, Toto Wolff, knowing.
Wolff and Hamilton were two of the major forces behind a seven-year dominance in Formula One for the German brand, as the two won six world championships together while Wolff’s stewardship of the team also orchestrated Nico Rosberg claiming the driver’s title in 2016.
Despite his dominance in F1 for many years with Mercedes, Hamilton has never played down his love for two wheels, which was evident when he conducted a MotoGP and F1 swap at Valencia with Valentino Rossi in 2019.
The pair rode Yamaha M1 bikes together before Rossi got behind the wheel of the Mercedes F1 car, as they toured the Spanish circuit on each other’s machines. But that event was known to Wolff who approved Hamilton going ahead with the test.
Just after Hamilton won his fifth F1 title, the now-Ferrari driver took part in a two-day test day which was overseen by the Crescent Racing team, but speaking to the armchair podcast, Wolff had no idea of Hamilton’s whereabouts.
“No, but I had to give permission,” said Wolff when asked if he was there in Valencia in 2019. “So, I gave it to them and I think they both enjoyed it a lot. Lewis is the annoying kid in school who does everything right and fast.
“I’ll tell you a story about biking. Secretly - they didn’t tell me - they went testing in Jerez and one of my heads of strategy was a motorbike guy, one of the engineers, and I couldn’t get hold of him for two days.
“And then calling Lewis, his engineer picked up and said ‘It’s all good, all is fine, we’ve just finished biking and just whatever you hear he’s fine’. I said ‘What happened?’ He fell. But he was four seconds off the MotoGP pros only. Unbelievable. The body feeling he has is what makes him a champion.”
Hamilton has again been in the motorcycle news feed of late as he recently held talks with KTM about investing in its MotoGP project.
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After graduating with a sports journalism degree, Robert joined Crash.net to lead the WorldSBK coverage in 2021, while also providing MotoGP coverage. Fulfilling that role for over three years, Robert was able to put his knowledge about all things racing to the test.
