Lewis Hamilton has detailed the surprising extent of the injuries he sustained during his shakedown crash at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of the 2025 F1 season.
The seven-time F1 drivers' champion alluded to the fact that the shunt just days into his Ferrari tenure last year was not without consequence following his second-place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix.
And after his first victory for the Scuderia, at the scene of the accident, the 41-year-old confirmed what he had suggested just seven days prior.
However, Hamilton did not go into detail about the crash, which was reported at the time, merely saying that he "carried that for months" into his debut campaign with the Italian team, which was ultimately a disappointing year where he failed to reach the podium for the first time in his F1 career.
When questioned on the crash again on media day at the Austrian Grand Prix, the 106-time grand prix winner shared what happened and how he treated the injury.
"It is private, but I hit the wall very hard last year in testing," the British driver told media, including RacingNews365.
"I knocked out one of the discs in my neck, protruding into the nerve, so I couldn't do a lot for like nine weeks."
Hamilton is a resurgent force in F1 this year, having taken three podiums to go with his maiden victory for the Prancing Horse. He sits second in the F1 drivers' championship, between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
And the extensive and alarming measures he needed to take underlines why his start to life at Ferrari may have underwhelmed to the extent it did.
He added: "I was having chiropractors every day, physio every day, I couldn't sleep, a lot of painkillers, had to get injections, I did everything I could to try to fix it, so that's what I was trying to live with, basically, which is not easy in a seated position that you're sitting in."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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