Secret Lewis Hamilton motorbike test uncovered as Wolff reveals surprise phone call

But that hasn’t stopped plenty of exceptional drivers from giving motorbikes a shot. And according to Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton was one of them!

While Sir Lewis Hamilton’s racing career has largely centered around Formula 1, his interests in other race series have been apparent for years.

In fact, Hamilton even expressed an interest in buying a MotoGP team after it became clear that Liberty Media — the company that bought Formula 1 in 2017 — planned on also buying the top-level bike racing series.

When Liberty Media announced its Dorna takeover, Maffei said, “we had immediately people call up and say, I want to buy a team, including people like Lewis Hamilton.

“Why? Because they saw what had happened in Formula 1, and they want to follow.”

We haven’t heard much more about the reported Hamilton MotoGP team as Liberty Media undergoes an investigation to determine if its takeover of Dorna would violate monopoly laws with the European Union. But that hasn’t stopped Hamilton from maintaining an interest in bikes.

In fact, according to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, that interest has expanded to include Hamilton seeing how quick he could be on two wheels!

Speaking to Armchair Expert, a podcast hosted by star Dax Shepard, Toto Wolff shared a fascinating story of the time Hamilton eloped with Peter Bonnington and James Vowles to test a Yamaha YZF-R1 at Jerez.

“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,” Wolff recalled on the podcast.

“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.”

It isn’t easy to come to grips with a two-wheeled machine when you’re used to the planted feeling of four, so it isn’t a shock that Hamilton took a tumble!

The Yamaha YZF-R1 that he was riding at Jerez was not exactly designed for beginners; rather, it’s a sport bike designed for professional competition in SuperBike championships around the world.

It’d be like asking a motorcycle racer to get behind the wheel of an open-wheel car for the first time; there’s a massive learning curve.

But according to Wolff, Hamilton was fast.

“He was four seconds off the MotoGP pros only,” the Mercedes team boss told Shepard.

“No, it’s unbelievable. The body feeling that he has is what makes him a champion.”

The test took place back in December of 2018, in the throes of Hamilton’s dominance with Mercedes. Also at the test were Yamaha’s works drivers at the time, Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes.

“Lewis already did two track days on his bike [before] and the people of his team were a little bit concerned because of his speed,” van der Mark told Motorsport.com at the time.

“He was very fast but he didn’t have a riding style. He had lots of lean angle, so the initiative came a bit from his team that he’d get a few tips from professionals.”

Further, van der Mark admitted that he was alone with Hamilton during the first day of testing, and that he as “trying to make him go a bit slower. I had to stop him; he’s not afraid at all and he tried to take corners as fast as with his car.”

Van der Mark also praised Hamilton’s “natural talent,” his lack of fear, and the fact that while he was slower than the professionals, he was quicker than most riders during their first big test.