Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi to swap their rides at Abu Dhabi
- Shahmir Khan
- Mar 10, 2019
- 2 min read
Monster Energy is working to arrange a ride swap between Valentino Rossi and Lewis Hamilton at Abu Dhabi.
Monster Energy, who is the title sponsor of Yamaha in MotoGP and also sponsors Mercedes AMG in Formula 1, is the working force behind the swap between the two greatest sportsmen of their series.
“This possibility has been under consideration for years, but we have not been able to realise it,” a Yamaha spokesman said.
“We'll see what happens this time. There's still nothing firm, far from it.”
Due to the contractual conditions, both Hamilton and Rossi won't be allowed to swap rides until at the end of the season at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The reigning Formula 1 champion was also spotted at Losail International Circuit in Qatar, where he was present in Yamaha and Petronas Yamaha SRT garage, learning about the bikes from rookie Fabio Quartararo.
Hamilton previously tested a Yamaha R1 of World Superbike Championship at Jerez last year.
The MotoGP riders testing a Formula 1 car is also not very new, as Mercedes previously arranged a test session at Silverstone for Jorge Lorenzo when he was at Yamaha team in 2016.
Red Bull also organised F1 test last year for reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and his teammate Dani Pedrosa, who has now retired from MotoGP.
Lewis Hamilton is keen on performing more bike outings in future and has expressed his dream of testing for MotoGP a lot of times in the past.
"I wanted to race motorcycles. Racing with Rossi? A dream.
"My father said it was too dangerous, and he bought me a go-kart. I'm fast on a bike, but not enough. If it were not for the F1, I'd be racing."
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