Ferrari fined €30,000 after Hamilton hit a mechanic in the pits at the Belgian GP
Ferrari has been fined €30,000 for the unsafe release of Lewis Hamilton's car from the pits during the Belgian Grand Prix, held on 19 July 2026 at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The incident occurred during Hamilton's stop on lap 20, when his right-front tyre caught a member of Ferrari's pit crew who was moving towards the car to adjust the front wing. The mechanic fell to the ground but, according to the stewards' official decision, was not injured. Hamilton stopped the car immediately and waited for the crew member to move out of its path, leading the stewards to conclude that the seven-time world champion was not responsible for the dangerous situation. The team was penalised because its communication and car-release system allowed the driver to receive a green light while the mechanic was still in the immediate vicinity of the wheel.
According to the stewards' document issued by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, Ferrari must pay €20,000 immediately, while the remaining €10,000 has been suspended for 12 months. The suspended portion of the fine will be activated if the team commits a similar infringement during that period. Ferrari must also submit a report to the FIA within 14 days covering the incident, a review of its procedures and the protocols introduced to reduce the risk of a recurrence. The stewards stressed that this was a serious procedural failure that could have endangered the safety of personnel in the pits, although there were no injuries on this occasion. At the same time, they took into account the unusual combination of circumstances that caused the confusion and therefore decided to suspend part of the financial penalty.
Green light activated while the mechanic was approaching the front wing
The official reconstruction shows that the incident was not caused by a single isolated mistake, but by a series of delayed and uncoordinated pieces of information during a complex pit stop. Hamilton entered the pits carrying a five-second penalty imposed for a collision with George Russell on the opening lap. Before the mechanics were permitted to touch his Ferrari, the car had to remain stationary for the full five seconds. A further complication was that Charles Leclerc was in his own pit box when Hamilton entered the pit lane, increasing the operational workload on Ferrari's crew. Hamilton also requested a front-wing adjustment over the radio, but according to the stewards and the team's explanation, that information was not passed in time to the person controlling the car-release signal.
When the five-second penalty had elapsed, one crew member first gave the instruction to begin the stop and then stated “0.6 degrees”, referring to the requested front-wing correction. The change of all four tyres was then completed, the jack operator lowered the car and the responsible controller activated the green light. Hamilton, following the standard signal, moved forward. At the same moment, another mechanic, holding the wing-adjustment tool, stepped towards the right-front section of the car. According to the FIA document, he was looking at the tool and did not notice the green light, placing himself directly in the path of the tyre.
The contact occurred at low speed, but knocked the mechanic to the ground. As soon as Hamilton noticed what had happened, he braked and did not continue until the area in front of the car was clear. The stewards singled out that reaction as an important reason why the driver received no additional penalty. The decision stated that Hamilton was in no way at fault for the incident because he moved only after receiving the official green signal. Moreover, stopping after the contact prolonged his time in the pits and caused him a sporting loss rather than an advantage.
Ferrari admitted a procedural failure
Ferrari accepted before the stewards that car number 44 had been released in unsafe circumstances. The team identified the late instruction to adjust the front wing, insufficiently clear internal communication and the mechanic's failure to notice the green light as the main causes. That combination created conflicting operational signals: one part of the crew had finished changing the tyres and declared the car ready to leave, while another crew member was only beginning to perform the additional task. In such a confined space, amid noise, time pressure and the simultaneous movement of several crew members, any lack of coordination can become a serious danger in a fraction of a second. The FIA therefore directed responsibility towards the team's procedures rather than the driver, who had responded to the light signal in front of him.
In modern Formula 1, releasing a car from the pits relies on a precisely coordinated sequence of actions. Mechanics must confirm that the tyres are correctly secured, that the car has been lowered from the jacks and that no one is standing in its path, while the controller also monitors traffic in the pit lane. Additional work, such as changing the front-wing angle, must be incorporated into the plan before the green light is activated. In Ferrari's case at Spa-Francorchamps, the request for a wing correction did not reach all responsible personnel in time. This is precisely why the mandatory report to the FIA is not merely an administrative consequence, but a requirement for the team to demonstrate how it will close the communication gap between the driver, engineers, controller and mechanics.
The stewards stated in their reasoning that similar procedural failures directly endanger the people working around the car. Although the incident ended without injury, the severity of the penalty reflects the potential consequences of contact with a wheel, front wing or the floor of the car. A Formula 1 car travels considerably more slowly in the pits than on the circuit, but even at low speed the vehicle's mass, immediate acceleration and limited space can cause serious injuries. The decision therefore sends the message that the absence of an injury does not remove responsibility when the safety system has failed. The suspended €10,000 additionally links the financial sanction to a concrete improvement in procedures over the following 12 months.
Hamilton: For a moment, my heart sank
Hamilton said after the race that he moved because the green light came on, the only signal on which a driver can reliably depend in such a situation. He explained that when leaving the pit box he is focused on the light on one side of the cockpit and on the pit exit, not on a mechanic appearing beside the right-front wheel. When he felt and saw the contact, he stopped immediately. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said his “heart sank for a moment” because he remembered Ferrari's serious incident from 2018. Relief came only after confirmation over the radio that the mechanic had not been injured.
Hamilton's comparison referred to the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix, when Kimi Räikkönen was released prematurely from Ferrari's pit box. The left-rear tyre had not been changed, but the driver received the green light and moved off, striking mechanic Francesco Cigarini. Cigarini suffered a double leg fracture and Ferrari was fined €50,000. The team's subsequent investigation identified a problem with the sensor system and the procedure for confirming completion of the wheel change. That event remained one of the most memorable examples of danger in the pits, so it is understandable that the same scene came to Hamilton's mind following the contact in Belgium.
The difference between the two cases lies in the outcome and the technical cause, but the common element remains a green light activated before the area around the car was safe. In Bahrain, the result was a serious injury and Räikkönen's retirement, while in Belgium the mechanic escaped injury and Hamilton continued the race. Nevertheless, the FIA imposed a significant penalty in 2026 because it assessed that the risk had been real. This emphasised that safety rules are applied not only according to the consequences, but also according to the danger created by an incorrect procedure. Ferrari must now prove that it has drawn operational conclusions from the incident before the next races.
Five-second penalty further complicated the stop
Hamilton's stop was also unusual because he had to serve a penalty for contact with Russell at Turn 5, at the beginning of the Les Combes complex. The FIA stewards reviewed video footage, radio communications and onboard recordings and concluded that Russell, on the outside, had sufficient overlap and was entitled to space. Hamilton's Ferrari lost front-end grip on the inside line and understeered towards the Mercedes, after which its left-front wheel struck Russell's car. The stewards assessed Hamilton as wholly responsible for the collision, but considered his attempt to correct his direction, the reduced grip on the first lap and the fact that the manoeuvre was neither aggressive nor intentional as mitigating circumstances. Instead of the standard ten seconds, he received a five-second penalty.
That sanction directly contributed to the later confusion in the pits. The rules required Ferrari first to serve a period during which no one was permitted to work on the car and only then begin the tyre change and wing adjustment. At the same time, the race was neutralised by a virtual safety car, making the stop strategically attractive and further increasing the time pressure. When the penalty wait, simultaneous work on the tyres and wing and the traffic involving both Ferrari cars are combined, the number of possible points of misunderstanding increases. The stewards accepted that context as unusual, but not as a justification for an unsafe release.
Hamilton retained fourth place after the incident. Kimi Antonelli won at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of Charles Leclerc, while Max Verstappen finished third. According to Formula 1's official report, Hamilton's result remained unchanged because he received no sporting penalty for the pit incident, while the financial sanction was imposed on Ferrari as the competitor. With fourth place, Hamilton returned to second position in the drivers' standings, 45 points behind Antonelli and ahead of Russell, who did not finish the race after the collision. For Ferrari, the weekend therefore brought Leclerc's second place and a strong points haul, but also an uncomfortable safety failure that overshadowed part of the result.
Why Spa is particularly demanding for pit crews
Spa-Francorchamps is one of the longest and fastest circuits on the Formula 1 calendar. The championship's official data lists a lap length of 7.004 kilometres, and the Belgian race has been part of the history of the world championship since the inaugural 1950 season. A long lap means decisions about entering the pits often have to be made quickly, particularly when a virtual or actual safety car appears. The changeable weather conditions in the Ardennes further increase the need for timely communication, as conditions on one part of the circuit may differ from those on another. Nevertheless, the specific characteristics of Spa-Francorchamps do not alter the basic safety rule: the car must not receive the signal to leave until all crew members are clear of its path.
The incident involving Hamilton showed how quickly a routine procedure can become complex when a penalty, the replacement of all tyres, an aerodynamic adjustment and the presence of the team's second car are combined in the same stop. The stewards did not claim that Ferrari had deliberately disregarded safety, but that a late instruction and insufficiently clear communication had produced an unsafe outcome. That distinction is important in determining the sanction, but does not diminish the team's obligation to ensure that the system is resilient even in unforeseen circumstances. A safety procedure must function precisely when the operation is at its most demanding, not only during a routine stop. In its forthcoming report, the FIA expects concrete corrective steps rather than merely a general promise that the incident will not be repeated.
Possible changes could include a clearer chain of confirmation for late driver requests, a ban on activating the green light until completion of all additional work has been confirmed and more precise verbal commands that cannot be confused with instructions to begin the stop. In its published decision, the FIA did not prescribe a specific technical response in advance, but required Ferrari to review the process itself and submit protocols for mitigating the risk. Responsibility for detailed implementation therefore remains with the team, while the regulator will assess whether the measures taken are sufficiently convincing. If a similar infringement occurs within a year, the suspended portion of the fine will no longer remain merely a warning. For Ferrari, the Belgian incident is therefore simultaneously a financial penalty, a safety obligation and a test of the credibility of its internal controls.
The most important fact remains that the crew member was not injured. Hamilton's immediate reaction prevented the brief contact from escalating into a more serious event, but the official investigation showed that safety should not have depended on the driver's reflexes after the green light had been activated. The FIA therefore separated the driver's responsibility from that of the team: Hamilton acted according to the signal he had received and stopped immediately, while Ferrari was responsible for that signal being activated at the wrong moment in the first place. The financial penalty and mandatory report are intended to ensure that the problem is eliminated at system level. The next 14 days will be the period in which the team must turn its admission of error into verifiable procedural changes.
Sources:
- FIA – official stewards' decision on the unsafe release of Hamilton's car, Ferrari's fine and the mandatory report (link)
- Formula 1 – official report on the pit incident, lap 20 and the decision not to impose a sporting penalty on Hamilton (link)
- Sky Sports – Hamilton's reaction following the contact with the mechanic and his comparison with Ferrari's 2018 incident (link)
- FIA – official decision on Hamilton's five-second penalty for the collision with George Russell (link)
- Formula 1 – official report and results of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix (link)
- Formula 1 – explanation of Ferrari's 2018 Bahrain incident and the injury suffered by mechanic Francesco Cigarini (link)
- Formula 1 – official information about the Spa-Francorchamps circuit and the history of the Belgian Grand Prix (link)