Ride Swap!
Lewis Hamilton & Valentino Rossi
The exclusive onboard footage watch from Lewis Hamilton piloting Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1 and Valentino at the wheel of the Mercedes AMG F1 W08 is finally out now!
Jump onboard with Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi to get exclusive insight into the pair making motorsport history with the ultimate race-machinery swap.
While Valentino Rossi drove the Mercedes-AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+, the car Lewis used to win the 2017 FIA Formula One™ World Championship with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Lewis rode the 2019 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP YZR-M1 bike which Valentino piloted during the 2019 competition season.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoqoG97I8rs[/embedyt]Speaking of Lewis Hamilton, Lin Jarvis, Team Principal – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP said, “I was very impressed by Lewis’ performance because how many champions of cars could come here and get on an M1, go out there and do themselves proud? The techniques of driving the car and riding the bike are so different but obviously the human skillset of being able to deal with racing and speed, lines and reactions and so forth is common so it’s fantastic to watch.”
Of Valentino’s performance in the car, James Vowles – Motorsports Strategy Director, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport said, “Valentino’s approach was very meticulous. He got the fundamentals right first in terms of getting the car to where he wanted it to be on track and controlling it, and then just intuitively braking later and carrying more speed into the corner, almost like I imagine he does with a MotoGP bike, and it’s very impressive to watch. It is really the sign of a true master that he’s not out of control and progressively finding performance. Throughout the day, he had areas of strengths. One of them was braking late and carrying speed into the corner, he’s really good at that. “Give him another day or two in the car, and he will then be on top of the fundamentals plus the tuning of all of that. There is a lot of performance to come. In slow-speed corners, as in the exits onto the start-finish straight, there he was very good. Where he was a little bit behind Lewis – and it doesn’t surprise me too much – is high speed.”
For more action follow the hashtag #LH44VR46 on social media!