F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Has Been Cleared Of Wrongdoing After Last Weekend’s Red Bull Drama

Lewis Hamilton was seen potentially touching the rear wing of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull after the Spanish Grand Prix last Sunday. A photo was taken that makes it look as though Lewis Hamilton had his hand on the rear wing of the RB18 as all of the cars were lined up in parc ferme. At the time, the 7-time world champion was asked to do a sample for a doping test at the Circuit de Catalunya’s medical centre.

Touching a car in parc ferme is breaking regulations, with Max Verstappen incurring a ¢50,000 fine after he touched the wing of a Mercedes last year. A video was taken of Lewis touching the car last weekend, but now a still image from another angle makes it look as though Hamilton is just trying to squeeze between the car and a railing, not actually touching it.

That’s my video/photo, it’s still not clear weather he touched it or not pic.twitter.com/TcAToSIxzO

— Luis Arochi (@LuisArochi24) May 24, 2022

The video above compliments this photo, showing that Hamilton is doing his best to not touch the car.

Article 60.5 of the 2022 Formula 1 sporting regulations reads:

“Drivers must not interfere with parc ferme protocols in any way.”

The FIA released a statement saying:

“It is clear to the stewards it has become a habit of the drivers to touch cars after qualifying and the races.

“This was also the explanation of Verstappen, that it was simply habit to touch this area of the car which has been a point of speculation in recent races between both teams.

“This general tendency has been seen as mostly harmless and so has not been uniformly policed. Nevertheless, it is a breach of the parc ferme regulation and has significant potential to cause harm.”