Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi to Swap Seats?

5-time Formula One World champion, Lewis Hamilton will be making an appearance at the Qatar MotoGP race. The British driver will be present as a guest of the Monster Yamaha MotoGP team.

This was only possible owing to common sponsor, Monster Energy. In addition to that, Mercedes‘ title sponsor, Petronas is also the title sponsor of another MotoGP team as well. Hamilton’s love for motorbikes is no secret and he has ridden bikes before.

Now, in an interesting turn of events, Hamilton and MotoGP legend, Valentino Rossi are set to race in each other’s machines. However, the much-anticipated swap will likely take place after the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi.

Also, on the other end of the scale, Rossi will get a chance to sample the 2019 Mercedes W10. This isn’t the first time both racers have sampled the other’s machine, Lewis Hamilton recently did a Superbike test back in December.

Rossi on the other hand had a run in the 2009 Ferrari. Funnily enough, Rossi was actually in the running for a switch to Formula One. In 2006 also, there was talk of him moving from 4 wheels to two wheels.

Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi first met in 2013, the year of the former’s second title win and first for Mercedes. Hamilton has even been invited by Rossi to race at the latter’s ranch in Tavullia.

The Italian legend often trains there and uses it to train the riders in his academy. Rossi has given a lot towards MotoGP and a number of Italian riders in MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 hail from his academy, The VR46 Academy.

For now, Rossi is focused on the MotoGP season that kicks off tomorrow in Qatar. Unfortunately, the Yamaha rider could only muster 18th on the grid. However, the race is long and the 9-time world champion will definitely claw his way up the order.