Lewis Hamilton was spotted wearing an unusual piece of headgear when shopping ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzukua on Sunday. The Mercedes star landed in the Far East on Tuesday and opted to head out for a leisurely trip for some downtime before putting on his racing overalls from Friday onwards as he looks to end his long wait for a race win.
As one of F1’s most recognised faces, Hamilton doesn’t seem to mind meeting fans and attracting large crowds wherever he goes. The 38-year-old is often seen arriving at the circuit in a snazzy new outfit as he takes his role as a fashion icon seriously.
But even his most loyal supporters were surprised to see his latest headgear after making a shopping trip. In what appeared to be a half-hearted attempt to conceal his identity, Hamilton ended up sticking out like a sore thumb with an oversized hat.
Images surfaced on social media of Hamilton wearing a mushroom hat while on a visit to Universal’s Super Nintendo World park in Osaka, Japan. The seven-time world champion’s polka-dotted accessory was a clear reference to Toad, a character from the popular Super Mario video game that was recently adapted into a film.
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Wearing his own branded ’44’ white T-shirt was a big giveaway for fans, who snapped the veteran racer inside the store and swiftly uploaded it to social media platform ‘X’. On Tuesday, he was also spotted keeping a low profile while eating ramen at restaurant Kikanbo.
Only last year, Hamilton revealed he is an avid gamer and, in particular, a big Super Mario fan. At the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, Hamilton visited a local retro games store in Montreal to purchase the original Mario Kart game after discovering his Nintendo 64 in storage.
However, on that occasion he was all out of luck as the game wasn’t available for sale. Instead, he decided to buy an old game named after his hero Ayrton Senna on the Sega Genesis – also known as the Mega Drive.
“I just had this itch to play old games,” he said last year, as quoted by the Daily Star. “I found an old Nintendo 64 in my storage and bought Golden Eye.
“Then, when I landed [in Canada], I went to get Mario Kart but they didn’t have it, so I bought a Sega Genesis and they had the Senna game and I thought, ‘this is perfect’. So I’ve been spending the last couple of nights driving the Senna game.”
Hamilton will be hoping to get his own speed boost after his Super Mario World visit after finishing third to secure a podium finish in Singapore on Sunday.
His winless run has stretched to 37 races following Carlos Sainz’s victory, but the Mercedes star does not appear to be far away from adding to his 103 race wins.
