F1 Tech Expert Justifies Lewis Hamilton’s 5 Second Penalty as Mercedes Star Puts a Hole in $700,000 Red Bull Equipment

One of the major talking points of the Belgian GP Sprint was the five-second time penalty received by Lewis Hamilton for running into the side of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull. While many people have claimed that the penalty was too harsh, F1 tech expert Sam Collins explained the extent of damage that the RB19 of Perez faced and pointed out why the FIA chose to punish Hamilton.

On lap six of the 11-lap race, Hamilton sent his car down the inside of Perez’s RB19 into turn 15. However, going side by side in wet conditions did not turn out to be a wise choice as Hamilton drifted wide into the RB19 of Perez thus damaging his sidepod as a result.

As a result of the collision, Red Bull suffered damage to its chassis which will cost them around $700,000. Apart from that, there might also be some damage to other internal components like the gearbox. The team will have to check all of it before they can send out their car for the main race on Sunday.

As for Hamilton, following the race, he said, “It wasn’t intentional but they [the FIA] saw it differently.” He believes that it was nothing more than a racing incident. The FIA, however, clearly thought otherwise.

The Lewis Hamilton – Sergio Perez incident explained

During the Post Sprint Show, Sam Collins analyzed the whole incident and tried to find out why Hamilton made contact with Perez. Slowing down the onboard footage, he explained that Hamilton put his right-front tire on the wet curbs, which made him lose grip. This caused him to make a slight correction which led to him colliding with the RB19 of Perez.

Collins then explained that the crash caused damage to a huge part of Red Bull’s bodywork. He also pointed out some tire marks on the cooling system inside the car and explained that it was maybe damage to that part of the car which forced them to retire the car.

However, even after so much explanation, Collins claimed that he was a bit confused about whether the penalty was justified. He finally concluded at it might have been a little harsh on Hamilton. Nonetheless, he can totally understand why the FIA chose to give the penalty.

Not everyone is as confused as Collins though. Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle made it clear that he believes the penalty was unfair. He claimed that Hamilton cannot just evaporate into thin air and it was just a racing incident.

Hamilton is not too bothered

Despite all of the arguments, the fact is that Hamilton got a time penalty. Because of it, he was demoted from P4 to P7. Hamilton came away with two points from the sprint race but did not seem too bothered by that. He said, “It doesn’t really make a huge difference. 4th or 7th in the Sprint race. You don’t get a lot of points.”

As for Sergio Perez, the damage to his sidepod meant that he lost all of the rear grip. He was soon overtaken by the two Ferraris and then Lando Norris before he lost control and went into the gravel. Finally, his race engineer Hugh Bird asked him to retire the car.