Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Maranello last week could not have gone any better, as he was welcomed by a raucous crowd, who were eager to see him in red. His second week at Ferrari got off to a concerning start, as he crashed during a test.
Hamilton was taking part in the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) program in Barcelona earlier today, a week after he drove a Ferrari F1 car for the first time in Fiorano. There, he lost control of the car and touched the barriers at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Since this took place behind closed doors, not a lot of information was available. The Race’s Scott Mitchell-Malm, however, rose to the occasion to reveal that nothing major happened.
“[Hamilton] Made contact with the barriers and caused damage that can be repaired today,” he wrote in an X post. “Hamilton absolutely fine, I’m told, and the incident is played down as fairly minor as he builds familiarity with the Ferrari and starts to find the limit“.
Lewis Hamilton crashed during Ferrari’s private test with its 2023 #F1 car at Barcelona. Made contact with the barriers and caused damage that can be repaired today. Hamilton absolutely fine, I’m told, and the incident is played down as fairly minor as he builds familiarity with…
— Scott Mitchell-Malm (@SMitchellF1) January 29, 2025
He added that this incident occurred towards the end of Hamilton’s lap.
On the contrary, Motorsport Italy reported the SF-23 suffered damages so bad that Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc‘s run, which was supposed to take place later today, got postponed.
Leclerc, who was to start driving in the early afternoon, will only be able to get behind the wheel of the car a few hours later. This is a major blow for Hamilton and Ferrari, who had planned on using Leclerc’s lap times as a benchmark to evaluate the Briton’s times.
Hamilton fans, however, can rest easy.
After all, the seven-time World Champion is no stranger to having had crashes in his previous two TPCs for McLaren and Mercedes respectively. Hamilton crashed the McLaren during his Valencia test back in 2007, while he also did something similar with Mercedes at Jerez back in 2013.
