Toto Wolff has revealed that Lewis Hamilton was part of a secret superbike test that the F1 star tried hiding from the Mercedes boss. The seven-time world champion was seemingly off-grid for 48 hours and even fell off his bike during a covert trip to Spain in 2018. Mercedes team principal Wolff didn't learn of Hamilton's expedition until the tests were over.
It's currently all systems go for Hamilton as he gears up for an exhilarating new part of his career. The 40-year-old got behind the wheel of a Ferrari F1 car for the first time this week, signalling the end of his 12-year stint with Mercedes. Hamilton's sights are set on an unprecedented eighth world crown, having last clinched the drivers' title in 2020. However, given his natural flair for the sport, Hamilton also had the potential to be a MotoGP star, even if he did keep his test plans from Wolff.
"Secretly, they didn't tell me. They went testing in Jerez with my head of strategy, who is also a keen motorbike guy and one of the engineers," Wolff said on the Armchair Expert podcast. "And I couldn't get hold of him for two days. And 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. But he was four seconds off the MotoGP pros. It's unbelievable. The body feeling that he has is what makes him a champion.".
A year after testing the Yamaha YZF-R1 in Jerez, Hamilton swapped wheels with MotoGP ace Valentino Rossi. The then-Mercedes star tested a 2019 Yamaha YZR-M1, while Rossi got behind the wheel of Hamilton's 2017 title-winning F1 car. Wolff quipped about Hamilton being "the annoying kid in school that does everything right" but was pleasantly surprised when the racing legend gifted him a rare MV Augusta bike.
