Lewis Hamilton crashes during Ferrari testing at Barcelona on third day of running for new F1 team
Ferrari are testing their 2023 car this week with new signing Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya; Hamilton in first weeks of adjusting to his new team and their cars ahead of pre-season testing with the 2025 challengers in Bahrain on February 26-28
Wednesday 29 January 2025 18:39, UK
Lewis Hamilton crashed during his third outing for Ferrari during the team's private test running in Barcelona.
Sky Sports News understands Hamilton was absolutely fine and that the incident was regarded as the kind of normal situation that can happen in such testing sessions.
The crash happened on Ferrari's second of three days of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the venue for the Spanish Grand Prix, with Hamilton sharing driving duties in the team's 2023 car with new team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc was due to take over the car in the afternoon but did not run after Hamilton's accident.
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It was Hamilton's third day in the SF-23 overall following his eagerly-anticipated debut at Fiorano, Ferrari's own test track, last week where he completed an initial 30 laps.
The tests in two-year old cars are allowing Hamilton to acclimatise to his new team's systems, cars and working practices at the track ahead of his first season at F1's most-famous team.
The precise details of Wednesday's incident in Spain when Hamilton went off the track are not currently known, with Ferrari not providing running updates on the behind-closed-doors three-day session.
Hamilton in Ferrari red - the latest pictures
Hamilton began his week in the SF-23 in Barcelona on Tuesday afternoon after Leclerc had first driven the car during the morning, with Ferrari providing fresh images of the seven-time world champion in their famous colours both on track and working with the team's engineers. (All pictures courtesy of Scuderia Ferrari).
Ferrari's January testing with Hamilton explained
Ferrari's new 2025 car is still in development ahead of its launch (February 19) and pre-season testing (February 26-28), but F1's sporting regulations allow for the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC), under certain restrictions, with teams this year able to run their challengers from 2023, 2022 or 2021 outside of race weekends and official 2025 testing.
The Scuderia have unsurprisingly opted to complete their early January running with the most recent car allowed, the 2023 SF-23.
But F1's regulations only allow four of a team's total TPC days for a year (20) to be with current race drivers.
But there will still be opportunities for the pair to get on track before Ferrari's 2025 car is launched, with Pirelli test days for 2026 tyre development in 2024 mule cars also taking place over the next month with certain teams. Hamilton is again set to feature at Barcelona in such a tyre test next week.
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