Lewis Hamilton apparently got a bit over enthusiastic during his recent Yamaha Superbike test, and his speed had to be reined in by fellow rider Michael van der Mark.
The five-time F1 world champion has never hidden his love for big bikes, enjoying a track outing in California at the beginning of the year with Honda MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow.
Earlier this month at Jerez, Hamilton jumped at the opportunity to test a Yamaha YZF-R1 supplied by the Crescent team. While his style left a lot to be desired, his speed was undeniable, to the point where it actually became a concern for onlookers.
"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.
"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.
"During the first day I was alone with Lewis and on the second day my teammate Alex Lowes joined us," added the Dutch rider.
"On the first day I’ve was only 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.
"During the second day we worked a lot on his style."
While van der Mark noted Hamilton's obvious natural ability and his motivation to learn, the rider admitted that evaluating his true potential on a bike was difficult.
"You see it’s fun for him, but he goes all the way," he said. "He wants to do it right and wanted to learn as much as possible.
"You see he’s not afraid at all. You also see that he doesn’t have any doubt, you see a lot of riders who have a little doubt, but he’s going all the way if he decides to do it that way.
"That’s the same in a car, that’s just his natural talent. He can ride a bike for sure - I don’t know how much faster he can go.
"I know he can be much faster but it’s difficult to predict what he could do on a bike.
"He has only ridden four days now and he was about seven seconds slower than us. With that he’s faster than most other track day riders.
"You can see he has a special talent, but I don’t know if he wants to do that [full-time]."
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