Ferrari fined €30,000 for unsafe Hamilton pit release
Ferrari has been fined €30,000 after a dangerous pit lane error saw Lewis Hamilton's car strike a mechanic, highlighting the severe operational risks in Formula 1's high-pressure environment.
Ferrari was handed a €30,000 fine by Belgian Grand Prix stewards after Lewis Hamilton's car struck a mechanic during a pit stop. The crew member, who was attempting a front-wing adjustment, was knocked to his knees but escaped uninjured.
The incident occurred because Hamilton was given the green light to leave his pit box while the mechanic was still directly in front of the right-front wheel. For a European motorsport industry that operates under immense commercial and competitive pressure, the error underscores the razor-thin margins between a fast turnaround and a serious safety breach.
Hamilton, who stopped his car immediately, said the moment evoked the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix, where a similar Ferrari pit error left mechanic Francesco Cigarini with a double leg fracture. "The green light went and so I went," Hamilton said. "You're looking over here you're not looking over there so that's more probably on the team, ultimately."
The financial penalty, of which €10,000 is suspended for a year, is a minor cost for a team of Ferrari's scale. Stewards imposed no further sporting sanction on Hamilton, ruling he had already suffered a "sporting disadvantage" because the botched stop delayed his race.
That delay was compounded by a mandatory five-second penalty Hamilton had to serve for a first-lap collision with Mercedes driver George Russell, who was spun out of the race at Les Combes. Hamilton ultimately finished fourth, a result he traced back to a crash in Saturday's final practice session.
"I damaged the car then when they rebuilt the car they missed something on the suspension," Hamilton said, blaming himself for the qualifying deficit that triggered the on-track chaos.
The fourth-place finish moved Hamilton into second in the Drivers' Championship, 45 points behind Spa-Francorchamps winner Kimi Antonelli. The series now heads to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Hamilton noting that without his earlier practice crash, "we could have been challenging for the win."
