Thorough FIA inspection of Lewis Hamilton’s car confirms Ferrari compliance after Barcelona GP
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) carried out a detailed inspection of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton’s car shortly after the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. The measure, which was already expected, was made after the British pilot’s vehicle was randomly selected.
The victory in Catalonia marked Hamilton’s first triumph since the Belgian GP in 2023, breaking a long period without climbing the top step of the podium.
This was also his first achievement since joining the Ferrari team, propelling him to a gap of just 41 points over Drivers’ Championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
During the race, a brief concern arose when Hamilton was flagged for a possible yellow flag infringement, after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso’s car developed problems and stopped on the side of the track.
However, the seven-time world champion was quickly released and completed a dominant final stage, winning the race with a 19.5 second advantage over Mercedes driver George Russell.
Now, the driver’s focus turns to chasing consecutive victories this coming weekend, as Formula 1 heads to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Ratifying his victory in Spain took a little longer than usual, as Hamilton’s Ferrari car was chosen at random by the FIA for in-depth post-race checks.
This procedure is part of a standard FIA protocol, which allows detailed analysis of one of the cars finishing in the top ten in each Grand Prix. These inspections are crucial to guarantee the technical integrity of the competition, validating that all components comply with Formula 1’s strict rules and ensuring fairness between teams.
To the relief of Hamilton and the Ferrari team, no non-conformities were detected, and all parts checked successfully passed the “extensive” inspection.
Jo Bauer, FIA Formula 1 Technical Delegate, and his team focused their analysis on several crucial components of Hamilton’s car’s rear brake system. This included the brake control software, data logging signals, sensors and the brake by wire (BBW) system.
“Following the race in Barcelona, car number 44 was randomly selected from the top ten for further physical inspections,” Bauer stated in an official document released by the FIA.
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“The rear brake system was the main target of these physical checks”, added the delegate.
He detailed that, in relation to hardware, the inspections covered Articles C11.1, C11.2 (rear only), C11.3 (rear only), C11.4, C11.5 and C11.6 of the regulation.
In terms of electronic systems and software, the checks followed Articles C8.1, C8.2, C11.6 and document FIA-F1-DOC-001.
“All components inspected were found to be in compliance with the 2026 Formula 1 Technical Regulations”, concluded Bauer, confirming the regularity of the vehicle.
Next stage of Formula 1: what to expect from the Austrian Grand Prix
This weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix will start at 3pm local time (2pm UK) at the iconic Red Bull Ring located in Spielberg.
The event will feature three free practice sessions, and it is worth remembering that the next sprint race weekend will be the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone, the following week.
Unlike what happened in Spain, Hamilton will participate in the first free practice session on Friday in Austria. In Barcelona, he was replaced at the Scuderia by reserve driver Dino Beganovic in FP1.
On this occasion, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, will give up his seat to Beganovic, as Ferrari chose the Austrian GP to fulfill its obligations to give space to rookie drivers.
The regulations require each of the 22 starting drivers, distributed across the 11 teams, to give up their seat on two occasions throughout the season to rookie drivers. A rookie is defined as any competitor who has participated in a maximum of two full F1 Grand Prix weekends.
Five other teams will also take advantage of the event in Austria to comply with this rule, including Racing Bulls and Williams. Racing Bulls, for example, will have already met this requirement in three of the four weekends of the season, thanks to Arvid Lindblad’s participation in the first two GPs.
