Lewis Hamilton has crashed a Ferrari Formula 1 car during a test outing with the team in Barcelona on Wednesday morning.
Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc have been present at the home of the Spanish Grand Prix this week as Ferrari’s pre-seasons preparations have continued.
The Italian marque has been running the 2023-spec SF-23, the latest creation that can be used under the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) rules, around the Spanish venue.
But while Ferrari sustained a seamless day on Tuesday, Motorsport.com’s Italian arm has revealed that a shunt has brought Hamilton’s morning run to a premature end.
The report states that the Briton’s accident occurred around 11am local time in the final sector and caused sizeable damage to the SF-23’s suspension and aero components.
Hamilton exited the cockpit unharmed, but his incident has put Ferrari’s plans on hold and will prompt an interrupted start to Leclerc’s period in the car this afternoon.
Ferrari had arranged the test in Barcelona to capitalise on better conditions amid the cold and wet weather that greeted Hamilton on his debut run in red at Fiorano last week.
An increase in drizzle had restricted Leclerc, embarking upon his seventh season with Ferrari in 2025, to 14 laps once Hamilton had completed his long-awaited showing.
The Monegasque, who, like Hamilton, is limited to 1000 kilometres in previous cars, will have to wait until the ongoing rebuild is complete to venture out onto the track.
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur hasn’t been in attendance this week as he has remained back in Maranello to oversee the work that is going into the team’s new 2025 machine.
Instead, Deputy Team Principal Jerome D’Ambrosio and Technical Director Loic Serra, both of whom worked with Hamilton at Mercedes, have been overseeing things.
Hamilton’s incident completes a bizarre hat-trick as he also had shunts whilst driving McLaren and Mercedes cars prior to making his respective race debuts with those sides.
READ MORE – How Ferrari is continuing Lewis Hamilton’s adaption with Barcelona test
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