Lewis Hamilton Avoids $50,000 Fine While Spying on Max Verstappen’s New Challenger as F1 Pre-season Testing Kicks Off

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton could not hold himself back from spying on Red Bull’s new challenger. The Briton sneaked a peek at the RB19 right before the beginning of the F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Ahead of the testing session, each team unveiled their cars showcasing the new design and livery of their 2023 challenger.

Red Bull went to extreme heights to keep the design of their RB19 a secret. Even during the shakedown at Silverstone, the team did not reveal any public image of the car. The Milton-Keynes-based team only released a short video in which the car could not be seen clearly.

Fuelled by curiosity, Hamilton along with his former teammate Valtteri Bottas could not help but inspect the new Red Bull. They did so when the drivers came together for a traditional group photo for the 2023 season.

 

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Lewis Hamilton avoids $50,000 fine

In the 2021 Brazillian Grand Prix, Hamilton’s rival Max Verstappen made the mistake of touching the Briton’s car in parc ferme.

The Dutchman’s curiosity came at a hefty price. He was fined a sum of $50,000 for touching Hamilton’s rear wing.

It seems like, Hamilton took his lesson from that and while inspecting the RB19, he kept away from touching it and thus avoided the hefty penalty.

Hamilton reveals two traits from W13 he wants in his new car

Mercedes’ W13 came out as a problem child in the 2022 season. The problems with the car saw the end of Silver Arrows’ dominance in the sport; it also denied Hamilton a chance at his record eight championship title.

On many occasions, the seven-time world champion labelled the car undrivable and the 2022 campaign as the worst in his entire F1 career.

However, going ahead there still are two traits from W13 that the Mercedes star wants in his new challenger in 2023. Hamilton identified only race pace and reliability as the positives of W13 and hopes only these two traits get replicated on the new car.

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