Lewis Hamilton revealed to the media that he sustained an injury in January 2025 around Barcelona-Cataluyna during a private Formula 1 test.
While he initially believed he’d escaped a shunt unscathed, he detailed the shocking extent of the injuries he picked up during the 2025 season shakedown.
Following his second-place finish, Hamilton felt the long-term consequences of his early crash with Ferrari.
The incident was reported when it happened, but it wasn’t until Hamilton’s first victory in red that he elaborated on how serious the crash was.
“It is private, but I hit the wall very hard last year in testing,” the British driver told the media, including Motorsport Week.
A long-term injury
The Briton confessed he “carried that for months” into his first season with Ferrari. No doubt adding to the struggles he found adjusting to the new team environment.
“I knocked out one of the discs in my neck, protruding into the nerve, so I couldn’t do a lot for like nine weeks.”
“I was having chiropractors every day, physio every day, I couldn’t sleep, a lot of painkillers, had to get injections.” He said, “I did everything I could to try to fix it, so that’s what I was trying to live with, basically, which is not easy in a seated position that you’re sitting in.”
With the constant physicality of F1, the injury no doubt affected Hamilton’s season but also his mentality last year.
However, the 2026 season has already seen a change of fate for the Brit. Saying goodbye to the ground-effect era turned a new leaf with the Ferrari driver, who was always on the back foot under the regulations.
Where Hamilton struggled for pace last year, he took the first Ferrari victory since Carlos Sainz in Mexico 2024.
A far cry from 2025, Hamilton is currently second in the Driver’s Championship with 115 points, only 41 points behind the current championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.
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