A frightening pit lane incident at the Belgian Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton accidentally drive into a member of Ferrari’s crew, sparking worries of serious damage
Ferrari have been fined £25,512 after Lewis Hamilton accidentally hit a crew member with his car during a terrifying pit lane accident at the Belgian Grand Prix. Hamilton was shown the green light during a pit stop, signalling that it was safe for him to pull away and get back onto the track at Spa-Francorchamps.
However, the seven-time Formula 1 champion immediately checked in on the mechanic, who was attempting to adjust his front wing very late on, via his team radio. While the member of staff fortunately didn’t sustain any serious damage, Hamilton has since admitted that his heart sank as he quickly remembered how Kimi Raikkonen had broke a mechanic’s leg in Bahrain in a similar incident.
Speaking after the Belgian GP, Hamilton said: “The green light went, and so I went. You’re looking over here [at the light] and not over there [at the mechanic].
“That’s more on the team, ultimately. But when it happened, I noticed him and I stopped and what went through my mind at that moment was when Kimi hit and broke the leg, and my heart really sank for a second.”
While the mechanic thankfully was not hurt in the process, Ferrari were unable to escape punishment for the incident, with the FIA announcing a sizeable fine to go Scuderia’s way.
A notice read: “The competitor (Scuderia Ferrari HP) is fined €30,000 of which €10,000 is suspended for 12 months on condition that the Competitor does not commit a similar infringement in the meantime and on the further condition that within 14 days the Competitor submits a report to the FIA regarding the incident and protocols introduced to mitigate the risk of such an incident occurring in the future.”
It added: “The Stewards heard from the team representative and reviewed video evidence. As Car 44 was being released from its pit stop, a mechanic stepped in the path of the front right tyre as the F1 Car moved forward. He fell but was not injured.
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“The team explained the incident occurred in the context of a complex and unusual combination of circumstances. HAM had been issued a 5 second time penalty for a driving infringement which had to be served before work could commence on the F1 Car.
“LEC was in his pit box at the point HAM entered the pit lane. HAM told his engineer that he wanted a front wing adjustment but that was not conveyed to the super controller.
“HAM came into his pit box, served the time penalty and at the end of the 5 seconds one member of the team announced ‘Go’ and then ‘0.6 degrees,’ the former being an instruction to commence the pit stop and the latter being an instruction for a wing adjustment.
“The tyre change was completed, the jack-man dropped the F1 Car and the super controller activated the green light signal for Car 44 to move off. Just as the driver moved off, another mechanic with a front wing tool moved forward into the path of the front right tyre. Before he stepped forward he had his head down looking at the tool and did not see the green light.
“The team acknowledged that for Car 44 to have been released in these circumstances was unsafe and attributed the error to an inappropriately late instruction for the wing adjustment, a lack of clear communication and the mechanic’s failure to notice the green light.
“The team committed to undertaking a review of their pit stop procedures to ensure an incident such as this will not be repeated. The Stewards determined that the driver was in no respect at fault.”
Hamilton claimed a fourth-place finish in Belgium, with Kimi Antonelli winning the race while Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen joined him on the podium. As a result, Hamilton sits second in the Drivers’ Championship standings, 45 points behind Antonelli.
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