The suspected cause behind Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari crashed has

The suspected cause behind Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari crashed has been revealed…read more

Ferrari’s Testing of a Previous Car (TPC) session in Barcelona was cut short on the second day due to a crash involving Lewis Hamilton. The team had been using the 2023 SF-23 for a three-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, following their previous TPC outing at Fiorano the week before. The crash occurred during Hamilton’s running on Wednesday, leading to significant damage to the car.

The crash is believed to have been caused by a bump in the third sector of the circuit, according to Italian publication Autoracer. While Hamilton emerged unscathed from the incident, the damage to the car meant the planned running for the day had to be curtailed. This has impacted Ferrari’s overall schedule, forcing the team to adjust their plans for the remaining days of the test.

Due to the restricted nature of this year’s TPC regulations—capping race drivers to a total of 1,000 kilometers over a maximum of four days—the team had originally planned for junior driver Dino Beganovic and former F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi to handle the rest of the day’s running. However, with Hamilton’s crash, Ferrari now plans to have Leclerc take over some of the laps that were lost. This adjustment will ensure that Leclerc gets the necessary mileage in the SF-23.

Hamilton’s test in Barcelona is now over, with his next scheduled outing set for February 4-5. He will participate in a Pirelli tyre test, where he and Leclerc will drive a modified ‘mule’ SF-24 to test new 2026 tyre constructions, ahead of their introduction in the next F1 season. This test will also involve McLaren.

This is not the first time Hamilton has crashed during a test with a new team. In 2007, he crashed his McLaren during a test in Valencia, and in 2013, he had a similar incident with Mercedes at Jerez. Despite the crash, Hamilton’s participation in Ferrari’s TPC program has allowed him to acclimatize to the team’s current machinery and familiarize himself with their technical and trackside operations ahead of his full-time commitment in the new season.

The increasing frequency of TPC sessions has led the FIA to impose new regulations to ensure that the primary beneficiaries of the tests are junior drivers. As a result, race drivers are now limited to just four days of testing and a combined 1,000 kilometers. Teams can still run up to 20 days of TPC sessions, but mileage for drivers not competing in the championship is unrestricted.