Credits: IMAGO / Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton, known for his love of music, delved into its professional world when he featured in Christina Aguilera’s song ‘Pipe’. Using the pseudonym XNDA, Hamilton’s performance reached the ears of almost everyone in the F1 community except for Daniel Ricciardo, who heard it a while later. However, the Honey Badger was visibly awed when he finally came across it.

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Ricciardo featured in an interview when he was a Renault driver, and the host asked him if he listened to Hamilton’s song with Aguilera. The Perth-born driver did not, so they played the song in the car that the former was driving. Ricciardo paused, heard the song, and gave out a wide smile, with the stamp of approval, “Well done.” 

When Aguilera and Hamilton released the song, the seven-time world champion wanted to remain anonymous. He revealed he was XNDA in 2020, two years after the song came out but many fans found out the singer’s real identity long before. “Insecurities, fear, and overthinking” were the main reasons behind him choosing to remain anonymous.

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It seems that Ricciardo was one of those people, who didn’t know who XNDA was. Upon hearing ‘Pipe’ featuring Lewis Hamilton, however, the honey badger loved the performance his fellow driver put in.

Lewis Hamilton’s love for music

Hamilton is a huge fan of music. Because of his popularity away from the track, he is close to several stars in the music world including Shakira and Rihanna. In fact, some of his most treasured moments in the off-season include him, just “vibing to” music.

In an episode of F1’s Chequered Flag Podcast, Hamilton speaks about his love for the same. He speaks about having his own studio, and revealed his plans during the off-season, “In the evening or after dinner I’ll pop up and I’ll play some music, or at my stuff vibing out.”

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Hamilton’s future teammate when he joins Ferrari, Charles Leclerc, is also a huge music fan. The Monegasque spends his free time playing the piano and has even released three singles to date. Potentially, could the two link up off-track at Ferrari and come up with some musical masterpiece for fans to enjoy?