
Graham Read
Formula 1 Correspondent
8:29 PM 29th January 2025
sports
Hamilton Unhurt After Crashing His Ferrari At Barcelona
![Lewis Hamilton lost control of his SF-23 while testing in Spain today]()
Lewis Hamilton lost control of his SF-23 while testing in Spain today
Sir Lewis Hamilton has emerged unhurt after today crashing the 2023 Ferrari Formula 1 car, which he and Charles Leclerc have been testing since yesterday at Spain’s Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The multiple champion lost control of the SF-23 car and hit the trackside barriers, delaying the testing programme until repairs could be made to the car’s bodywork and suspension. The team was unwilling to comment on the incident as it looks to get Hamilton fully immersed within its racing operations and procedures before next month’s three-day pre-season official test in Bahrain, which will be followed by the opening round of the new season in Australia in mid-March.
In Formula 1’s ongoing cost cap era, the running of the 2025 cars is strictly limited in terms of track time, with the forthcoming official test being the only main opportunity. As a result, teams have been utilising what are known as the sport’s TPC regulations (Testing of Previous Cars), which allow drivers to gain mileage in machinery that is at least two years old. This is exactly what Ferrari is doing in Barcelona until the end of tomorrow, having hired the current home of the Spanish Grand Prix for its behind-closed-doors preparations. Every F1 driver is limited to a maximum of 1,000 kilometres of such running per year over a maximum of four days.
![Ferrari’s 2025 F1 drivers reveal their new race suits (]()
Ferrari’s 2025 F1 drivers reveal their new race suits (
Last week’s Ferrari event at its Fiorano test track in northern Italy also utilised a 2023 car and was carefully stage-managed to generate as much worldwide media coverage as possible about Hamilton’s debut in red. The wintry weather was far from ideal, though, with only a limited number of slow-speed laps completed by both drivers, but this week the team has been keen to focus on tyre management and practice starts plus some higher-speed lappery rather than on photoshoots, giving its drivers an early opportunity to show some true pace, if still in a two-year-old chassis. The team had also been busy in the short gap between the Fiorano day and Barcelona with technical adjustments to make Hamilton more comfortable with the car’s pedal settings.
Ferrari has already revealed the new race suits that its drivers will wear this year and will launch its 2025 car at Fiorano on 19 February, one day after F1’s special multi-team F1 75 event at London’s O2 Arena. Before then, though, the iconic outfit will again be on track in Barcelona next week in a Pirelli-run test, as the Italian tyre supplier looks to determine its rubber for the 2026 season when significant new F1 regulations will be introduced.