Reigning World MotoGP champion Marc Márquez was seen at the Red Bull Ring although he wasn’t on two-wheels. Instead, the four-time MotoGP champion took to the wheel of a Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 car for a few laps of the Red Bull Ring. However, Márquez first had to undergo a series of laps in the simulator before getting onto the track for the test run. The Spaniard drove for a few hours at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix there later this season.
Other MotoGP rivals have taken to an F1 car in the past, notably Valentino Rossi with Ferrari and Jorge Lorenzo for Mercedes, while Fernando Alonso made the switch in the other direction to test Marquez’s 2015 bike.
Marquez said, “It was always my dream to race the quickest cars in the world. I had great respect for it ahead of today, and I didn’t sleep well. In the end it was an unbelievable experience, and an absolute highlight of my career. There is a massive difference to MotoGP. The limited visibility was a great challenge, in particular, to begin with. You feel a lot more constricted in the cockpit. The braking distances and timing in turns is completely different. A Formula 1 car has much more downforce, of course, which made for a lot of fun in the part of the circuit with the most turns, in particular.”
The 25-year-old had a litany of F1 big hitters to put him through his paces with the likes of three-time world champion Niki Lauda, eight-time grand prix winner Mark Webber and Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko watching from the stands.
Marquez is sixth on the list of all-time grand prix motorcycle race wins with a tally of 64 from 125cc up to MotoGP itself. He currently leads the 2018 standings with three wins from the first six races.