Lewis Hamilton blames Ferrari F1 team after Belgian Grand Prix pit stop fiasco

Vasseur looking serious in conversation with Hamilton, who has back to the camera — Photo: © IMAGO

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton blames Ferrari after Belgian Grand Prix pit stop fiasco

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth at the Belgian GP

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 20 July 2026 18:27

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Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has opened up on his version of events that led to him hitting a Ferrari mechanic with his SF-26 at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's car made contact with one of his Ferrari mechanics in the pit lane, but thankfully the mechanic was unhurt by the incident.

The mechanic was holding a blue tube and was attempting to adjust Hamilton's front wing at the time as the Brit moved onto the hard tyres. But Hamilton's pit light went green, causing him to move forward and away as he normally would before the mechanic had finished adjusted his wing.

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It meant that Hamilton did not have the front wing setup that he wanted for the rest of the race, and he could only finish in fourth, but the 44-year-old seemed to be more concerned about the mechanic, asking race engineer Carlo Santi how he was.

Santi confirmed the mechanic was okay, but Ferrari were soon flagged for an unsafe release.

FIA stewards revealed that they would investigate it after the race, and Ferrari were penalised for the unsafe release, being handed a €30,000 fine, €10,000 of which has been suspended for 12 months.

Hamilton explains mechanic situation

Luckily for Hamilton, the investigation did not yield a sporting penalty, and the 44-year-old kept hold of his fourth-place finish.

That has ensured that Hamilton has moved above George Russell and into second in the drivers' championship, and only lost out 13 points on his championship rival Kimi Antonelli, who claimed a sixth grand prix win of the season.

"The green light went, and so I went," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "You're looking over here. You're not looking over there. So that's more kind of probably on the team ultimately.

"When it happened, I then noticed him and I stopped. And what went through my mind in that moment was like back when Kimi hit and broke the leg, and my heart really sank for a second. But I'm really grateful, grateful he's ok.

"I think this weekend we were a bit unfortunate, and then Silverstone again. I think it's really great to see the performance that we're bringing, and we're improving the car constantly.

"I think we've got more stuff coming in the pipeline to try and close that gap down. But to be here and be have the pace generally that we did as a team is really encouraging.

"I think there's still a long way to go. I can't afford weekends like this in the sense of my performance yesterday, so I'm gonna step it up in terms of focus level for next week."

F1 HEADLINES: FIA announce late Belgian GP Ferrari punishment as Hamilton regrets 'unlucky' penalty

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