Lewis Hamilton addresses rumors of buying the Gresini Racing MotoGP team

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed that he wasn't seriously considering buying the Gresini Racing team in MotoGP as of now, but remains interested due to his love for the category. The seven-time world champion has always spoken fondly about his love for MotoGP and even tried his hand when he drove Valentino Rossi's bike in a promotional event in Jerez a couple of years back.

The legendary F1 driver has recently started to venture into other sports and has invested in teams like the Denver Broncos in the NFL. Rumors were swirling around on social media that he may be interested in buying the Gresini Racing team in MotoGP, which is a Ducati satellite team whose bikes are being ridden by Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez this year.

But in his pre-race press conference at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton squashed the rumors and said:

"I've always loved MotoGP. I'm interested in the potential growth of the sport, but I haven't looked that far into it just yet. But anything's possible.

"I'm definitely interested in, as I said before, about equity, and already with the Broncos, it was already a first step in team ownership. And so, yeah, I think over the next five to 10 years, there'll be hopefully more. We'll see where."

Lewis Hamilton previews the British GP this weekend

Lewis Hamilton stated that he did not believe that on 'pure performance' the W15 would be in the hunt for the race win with Red Bull and McLaren this weekend in Silverstone.

He told the media:

"I think out of pure performance, I don't think we are currently in the same place. Naturally, as you've seen in the last couple of races, on these high-speed circuits, particularly McLaren, I think probably might be the quickest, or at least Max maybe.

"And I think we're not that far behind. And I think we've definitely seen some really huge strides forward. And it's really great to see that we are slowly eking closer to the front runners." he added.

His teammate George Russell too believed that Max Verstappen and Lando Norris would be favorites for the race win on Sunday as "they look really fast in the high-speed corners and in Silverstone, there's a lot of high-speed sections. So I expect those guys to be the favorites" but he emphasized that he doesn't think that they'll "be far behind."

Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have found form over the last couple of races and have been regulars on the podium since the Canadian Grand Prix last month.

The duo's efforts have paid dividends in terms of the team, Mercedes closing the gap to McLaren in the Constructors Championship, and they are currently on 196 points - 72 points behind the latter - after 11 races and three Sprints this year.