After the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix race, a leaked photograph of Lewis Hamilton appeared in which he appeared to be touching the rear wing of Sergio Pérez’s car, something that is prohibited.
This is established in article 60.5 of the FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations , since “drivers must not interfere in the parc fermé protocols in any way”, and it was the reason why Max Verstappen received a fine of 50,000 euros at the São Paulo Grand Prix last season when he touched the rear wing of Hamilton’s own car.
Apparently, the image that circulated through social networks occurred when the Briton had to go to pass the anti-doping control at the circuit’s medical center, and although the international federation has not yet ruled, his team took the action with humor.
In a post on the Mercedes Twitter account, Hamilton appeared watching Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari at the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier in the year, with the famous phrase that Fernando Alonso said on the same stage a decade earlier when he was fighting wheel to wheel with Nico Rosberg: “All the time you have to leave a space.”
On that occasion, the Asturian, who was still in Ferrari, was forced to go off the track when the German, who was curiously in the team that starred in the publication in question, closed the interior.
This reference may have been made from Brackley after the image of Hamilton with Red Bull in Spain and the accusations they have received for what happened with Verstappen in 2021.
Mercedes has taken the situation with humor, something that has become commonplace among those responsible for the teams’ social networks in recent times, but they are not the only ones who have joined.
In Alpine they saw the reference they made to Fernando Alonso’s radio and they replied with a photograph of the man from Oviedo smiling as he got into the French single-seater.
This will remain as a new episode in which some will accuse Lewis Hamilton of having touched Checo Pérez’s wing, while others will defend that the seven-time world champion was just passing by. The only thing that is clear is how much fun the community managers of the Formula 1 teams have.
