The mechanic hit by Lewis Hamilton during Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix pitstop escaped without injury, Ferrari confirmed, with the team fined 30,000 euro for an unsafe release.

Hamilton came in under a virtual safety car on lap 20 to serve his only pitstop as well as a five-second hold for his role in the first-lap contact with George Russell.

After changing the tyres, a mechanic attempted to make a late front wing flap adjustment. But unbeknownst to the mechanic, the Briton had already been given the green light by the controller to depart from his box, leading to the mechanic being struck by the right-front of the car and falling to the ground.

Ferrari has since confirmed that the mechanic in question is doing perfectly fine and has not sustained any injuries, but Hamilton and the team still needed to visit the FIA race stewards for an alleged unsafe release.

The team has since been handed a 30,000 euro fine, 10,000 of which is suspended, with Hamilton keeping his fourth place in the result.

The FIA stewards’ verdict read: “The competitor (Scuderia Ferrari HP) is fined €30,000 of which €10,000 is suspended for 12 months on condition that the competitor does not commit a similar infringement in the meantime and on the further condition that within 14 days the competitor submits a report to the FIA regarding the incident and protocols introduced to mitigate the risk of such an incident occurring in the future.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

The stewards didn’t feel a sporting penalty was warranted because Hamilton immediately stopped and actually lost time because of the incident. However, given the safety nature of the incident they still felt a fine was warranted, as well as a commitment from Ferrari to review its pit crew communication and procedures.

“The team acknowledged that for Car 44 to have been released in these circumstances was unsafe and attributed the error to an inappropriately late instruction for the wing adjustment, a lack of clear communication and the mechanic’s failure to notice the green light. The team committed to undertaking a review of their pit stop procedures to ensure an incident such as this will not be repeated.”

Hamilton said the incident reminded him of Kimi Raikkonen injuring one of his mechanics at the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix. “I’m looking at the lights, and I’m supposed to go when the car’s dropping, and I went, and then I saw him to my right, and I stopped,” he said. “All I could think at the time was back when Kimi did a leg. I’m just grateful that he didn’t get hurt.”

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Both Lewis Hamilton and his Ferrari team boss, Frederic Vasseur, profoundly disagree with the five-second penalty he received for a collision with George Russell’s Mercedes on the opening lap of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.

“I think it’s mega harsh,” said Vasseur after the race. “If you have a look on the corner, Russell had enough space on the left-hand side, it’s not that he was close to the wall.

“I think it’s more a racing incident for me and this cost us a lot.”

The contact eliminated Hamilton’s former team-mate from the race, but was fundamentally caused by the Mercedes power unit apparently suffering an electrical deployment issue through the first sector, causing Russell to lose position to both Ferraris on the run up the hill towards Les Combes.

Russell then tried to brake ultra-late on the outside line into the corner and looked as if he had reclaimed a place from Hamilton at least, only for the Ferrari’s front-left wheel to clout his sidepod and tip the Mercedes into a spin. At the time, Hamilton explained on the radio that he had “no front end” because he was in the turbulent wake of the car in front, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

“It was ultimately a difficult weekend,” Hamilton said afterwards.

“I take all the responsibility for my incident yesterday [when he crashed in FP3], which then had a knock-on effect of the setup not being right, and then out of place in qualifying. Because I think with the setup right, I would have been probably, I think I could have been fifth or third or second.

“And then, that meant starting further back, and then I was in a position where George obviously looked like he lost power, and then he just swooped around on the outside, and we just sort of had a coming together.

“I got damaged, and then in the race, I did the best I could with the damage that I had, and then also the penalty.

“I think it was a racing incident, so I don’t think there should be a penalty for that.”

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Hamilton served the penalty at his first only pitstop of the race, during a virtual safety car deployment on lap 20, but he was signalled to go while a mechanic was still attempting to make a front wing adjustment. That consigned Hamilton to fourth place on the road at the chequered flag, with the Briton facing another investigation for an unsafe release.

In fact, 10 seconds is that standard penalty for “causing a collision”, but the stewards decided that mitigating circumstances warranted a lesser penalty.

“Approaching Turn 5 on the opening lap, Car 63 [Russell] attempted an overtake around the outside of Car 44 [Hamilton] and had established sufficient overlap to be entitled to racing room. Car 44 remained on the inside,” said the stewards’ verdict.

“During the corner, Car 44 experienced understeer and, despite attempting to avoid Car 63 by applying corrective steering, made contact with the right-hand side of Car 63 with its left-front wheel. The stewards determined that Car 63 remained with the available racing room and the the collision was caused by Car 44 being unable to maintain sufficient separation.

“The stewards recognised several mitigating circumstances. Car 44 acknowledged the presence of Car 63, attempted to leave appropriate racing room, and made a genuine attempt to avoid contact. The collision resulted from a loss of front-end grip rather than from an aggressive or deliberate manoeuvre. In addition, the incident occurred on the opening lap, where reduced grip and compressed racing conditions are recognised.

For these reasons, while Car 44 was wholly at fault for the collision, the stewards consider that a five-second time penalty, rather than the standard 10-second time penalty, is the appropriate penalty in accordance with the FIA Penalty Guidelines.”

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