Two champions, Lewis Hamilton of Formula One, and Tony Stewart of NASCAR got a taste of the other’s cars at the old 3.4 mile Formula One circuit at Watkins Glen, NY last raced in 1980.
Although the cold and damp weather conditions recalled, slightly, Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix and the NASCAR Nationwide race in Montreal, in 2008, both Hamilton and Stewart were grinning like children after the exhibition arranged by sponsor Mobil 1.
“I just feel like a kid today,” Hamilton said
Stewart whose career has been almost entirely on dry ovals said "I think I've raced one time in my career in the wet, and that was at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona about five years ago."
Hamilton grinned and joked "we brought a bit of English weather with us."
The last time there was a Formula One/NASCAR swap it was in 2003 on a dry day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ’s road course where Jeff Gordon traded his 3,450 lb Chevrolet for the 1,334 pound Williams BMW of then Formula One driver, Juan Pablo Montoya .
Ten thousand hardy race fans came out for the exhibition.
The athletic Formula One driver was a little intimidated by the brutish NASCAR stock car. "I was a little bit nervous," Hamilton said. "I was really, really surprised – I didn't know how stiff it was going to be, but it handles really well."
Stewart squeezed his body into the 2008 McLaren Mercedes MP4-23. If he was going to drive a Formula One car: “The first thing I'd have to do is lose about 25 pounds right off the bat. I would actually have to go and work out in a gym again.
In spite of his physique Stewart loved the precise feel of the Formula One car.
"Once we got rolling, it was unbelievable," Stewart said. "...Amazing of what the capabilities of the cars are. It's probably going to make my crew chief a little more stressed during the weekends right now because I'm going to want it to handle like that all the time. I don't think we'll ever get it there."
At the end of the day racing experience takes over even if the cars were so unalike.
Although the cold and damp weather conditions recalled, slightly, Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix and the NASCAR Nationwide race in Montreal, in 2008, both Hamilton and Stewart were grinning like children after the exhibition arranged by sponsor Mobil 1.
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| Photo: Mobil 1 |
“I just feel like a kid today,” Hamilton said
Stewart whose career has been almost entirely on dry ovals said "I think I've raced one time in my career in the wet, and that was at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona about five years ago."
Hamilton grinned and joked "we brought a bit of English weather with us."
The last time there was a Formula One/NASCAR swap it was in 2003 on a dry day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ’s road course where Jeff Gordon traded his 3,450 lb Chevrolet for the 1,334 pound Williams BMW of then Formula One driver, Juan Pablo Montoya .
Ten thousand hardy race fans came out for the exhibition.
The athletic Formula One driver was a little intimidated by the brutish NASCAR stock car. "I was a little bit nervous," Hamilton said. "I was really, really surprised – I didn't know how stiff it was going to be, but it handles really well."
| |
| Photo: Mobil 1 |
Stewart squeezed his body into the 2008 McLaren Mercedes MP4-23. If he was going to drive a Formula One car: “The first thing I'd have to do is lose about 25 pounds right off the bat. I would actually have to go and work out in a gym again.
In spite of his physique Stewart loved the precise feel of the Formula One car.
"Once we got rolling, it was unbelievable," Stewart said. "...Amazing of what the capabilities of the cars are. It's probably going to make my crew chief a little more stressed during the weekends right now because I'm going to want it to handle like that all the time. I don't think we'll ever get it there."
At the end of the day racing experience takes over even if the cars were so unalike.