Mercedes Fined €15,000 After Hamilton's FP2 Incident With Another Driver

Thursday, 07 March 2024 at 20:38

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Lewis Hamilton received a warning, and his team was fined €15,000 after an incident during the FP2 session ahead of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Formula 1's regulatory body, the FIA, released a statement about an hour after the end of the FP2 session in which the organization detailed the investigation of Lewis Hamilton's "impeding" incident.

Jeddah Corniche Circuit is very tight and twisty yet super fast. Unfortunately, this characteristic lends itself well to on-track incidents during the qualifying and practice sessions.

Drivers literally can't see behind any of the corners and 100% rely on warnings from their teams on the team radio as to when and where they have to be careful of the car approaching from behind.

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Mercedes failed to warn Lewis Hamilton (on a cooldown lap) about Logan Sargeant on Williams, who was approaching at a very high speed in turn number 11.

As a result, Hamilton couldn't react, and Sargeant had to take evasive action and steered into a run-off area to avoid the seven-time World Champion. The document published by FIA wrote:

"As a result, Car had to take evasive action by going off the track to avoid collision. Had that not been done, there would have been a serious, high-speed crash."

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The regulatory body reviewed the Mercedes F1 team's radio and concluded that the 39-year-old (or, as they refer to him, car 44) could do little to avoid the incident.

"Having listened to the team radio, it was clear to us that the team of Car 44 failed to warn their driver of the fact that Car 2 was arriving on a fast lap."

As a result of the investigation, FIA decided to give a warning to the Mercedes driver and a €15,000 penalty to the German team. The explained added:

"That was a serious failure on the part of the team, particularly given the speeds on this circuit and the nature of turn 11, which is at the end of a series of high speed corners where driver visibility is impaired. We therefore issue a warning to the driver and impose a fine of €15,000 to the team."