Damon Hill shares three-word reaction as Lewis Hamilton Ferrari crash detail emerges
Crashing his Ferrari in his third day of testing wasn't ideal for Lewis Hamilton's preparations for the 2025 F1 season, but it may yet be a good omen for his title dreams
by Daniel Moxon · The MirrorIf Lewis Hamilton believes in omens, then he may not be feeling so badly about crashing his Ferrari in testing this week.
It was certainly far from ideal. It happened at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya which was hired out for several days by Ferrari who are trying to give their star signing as much track time as possible to get used to the quirks of their machinery.
But he lost some valuable time after losing control of their 2023 car at turn 12 of the Montmelo circuit on Wednesday morning, causing "significant damage". Indeed, there was so much repair work needed that team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was supposed to drive in the afternoon, never got out on track.
Hamilton was unharmed, though, and in the long run it may prove to be no bad thing. The Brit is no stranger to an accident in pre-season testing - in fact, it has become something of an unusual trend whenever he joins a new team.
Back in 2007, he suffered a high-speed crash ahead of his debut F1 season with McLaren. And, after signing with Mercedes ahead of the 2013 campaign, Hamilton also had another incident as the Silver Arrow he was driving in pre-season suffered a brakes failure.
Even more curiously, Hamilton went on to win his first F1 drivers' title with each of those teams in the season after those testing troubles. He narrowly missed out on becoming champion as a rookie but got the job done with McLaren in 2008, before his first of six successes with Mercedes was secured in 2014.
If that trend continues, then 2026 could be the year Hamilton achieves his dream of becoming the sport's first and only eight-time champion. Upon seeing the stat, 1996 title-winner Damon Hill took to social media to make a quip about it, writing on his Instagram story: "A crashing bore?"
While not wanted, crashes during testing sessions are not uncommon as it is often the point of those sessions to push the car to the limit in different scenarios. And Hamilton would have been doing the same on a personal level to see how much performance he could squeeze out of Scuderia machinery.
Exact details of the incident have been kept under wraps and there have been no images or footage, because the test was held behind closed doors. But Italian publication Autoracer reports that the accident was "probably" caused by a bump on the track which upset the car in the third sector.
His next outing is scheduled for next week, where Ferrari will be back on track in Barcelona for a Pirelli tyre test. He is set to drive a 'mule' version of their 2024 car, the SF-24, which the team is said to have modified to test new tyres that the Italian firm is creating for new regulations in 2026.
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Watch F1 live
Watch Formula One on Sky Sports
£22 a month
Catch all the action from Formula One on Sky Sports and get exclusive access to races, qualifying and much more for every Grand Prix. From Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton, you won't miss a lap on Sky Sports.