Lewis Hamilton crashed on his third day of running for Ferrari during a scheduled test at Barcelona in their SF-23 car.
The Brit is preparing for his debut season in red after making a headline move from Mercedes during the off-season.
Hamilton is chasing a record eighth drivers’ championship in 2025 and joins the team that finished 14 points shy of ending a 16-year title drought last year after a close battle with McLaren.
Ferrari face additional obstacles with Hamilton’s 2025 car after deciding to ditch their old concept in pursuit of further gains.
It’s a bold choice with few long-term permutations as the 2026 F1 regulations are around the corner and will mean that any mistakes made this season will be wiped clean by the end of December.
Crashing early in his career won’t do him any favours, but it’s better for the 39-year-old to get it out of the way before the season starts at the Australian Grand Prix in March.
Kimi Raikkonen was the last Ferrari signing to crash in testing before Lewis Hamilton
The last driver to crash after signing for Ferrari was Kimi Raikkonen back in 2014, who hit a wall during the penultimate pre-season test of the year in Bahrain.
The ‘Iceman’ was unharmed in the incident, but left his mechanics with a lot of work to do after damaging the front of his car.
It was a sign of things to come that season, as Raikkonen endured a miserable campaign and Ferrari suffered their first winless season in 21 years.
READ MORE: Kimi Raikkonen once slated Ferrari fans for what they did to Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix
Hamilton will want to avoid repeating that sort of form in 2025 but is big on accountability. His old Finnish rival refused to take the blame for his crash in Bahrain.
“I spun on the kerb at the exit of Turn 4, these things can happen! Luckily, it was right at the end of the day, I’m only sorry because it means the team now has more work to do,” Raikkonen told GPToday.
“These things happen so I wouldn’t say it’s my fault. We improved the settings a lot and it’s not too bad, but there’s a lot of torque in the car.”
What were Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton doing before his Barcelona crash?
Ferrari figures were calling Hamilton’s crash ‘fairly minor’ but it will have disrupted their plans to gather as much data as possible.
Losing track time could have a big impact on their preparation for the season, with little planned running before the seven-time champion’s official debut.
Charles Leclerc thinks Hamilton could struggle at Ferrari if he fails to find more performance during qualifying.
READ MORE: What Ferrari have planned for Lewis Hamilton’s Barcelona test without fans watching
It was something he struggled with during his final years at Mercedes, and will be hoping that some new car characteristics will be able to fix.
Ferrari are already addressing Hamilton’s Mercedes weaknesses in Barcelona, including conducting preparation lap experiments to aid their knowledge of tyre management.
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