©MonsterEnergy/Twitter
Triple MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo has described his test of a Mercedes F1 car at Silverstone as “a dream come true”.
The Spaniard sampled the 2014-spec W05 that Lewis Hamilton drove to his second world title at the British Grand Prix venue’s International layout. The event was organised by Monster Energy, which sponsors both the rider and the F1 team.
In order to prepare for the outing, Lorenzo drove several less powerful cars in the build up to the test. Talking about the experience, the 29-year-old said: “It's been a great day.
“The car is so smooth, I expected a more twitchy and difficult car but in the end everything was so good: the steering wheel, the engine, everything.
“It was quite easy to drive and the car in the corners is really, really fast and the grip of the car it's unreal.
"In the first lap you feel the power but when you get used to it, it's similar to a MotoGP bike but in the corners, you are in a different world, about 40km/h faster in the middle of the corners.
“Also it surprised me how late you can brake and the amount of grip the car can support in full throttle in the fast corners is insane.”
By having a taste of F1 machinery, Lorenzo emulates MotoGP team-mate Valentino Rossi, who tested several times for Ferrari and even contemplated switching to four-wheel action earlier in his career.
Although no lap time was released, Mercedes track engineer Richard Lane was quick to hail Lorenzo's performance and progress.
“It's been great working with Jorge,” he said.
“From the moment he arrived he's been full of enthusiasm and keen to get stuck in.
“Between each run he's been poring over the data, and looking to find areas for improvement – you can see why he's a multiple world champion on two wheels.
“He's taken feedback on board and improved with every run.”
Chris Medland's 2016 Japanese Grand Prix preview
Scene at the Malaysian Grand Prix
2016 Malaysian Grand Prix - Quotes of the week
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Max Verstappen’s racing curiosity has never been confined to Formula 1 – and now, one…
When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…
Max Verstappen has never been one to sugar-coat reality – and as Formula 1 braces…
Ferrari have survived decades of criticism about strategy calls, driver politics and pit stops that…
While the paddock has been whispering for months that Mercedes might be holding the winning…
Dan Gurney passed away on this day in 2018, and here at F1i we'll never…