Izzy Hammond walked away from a heavy crash during Formula E’s Evo Sessions influencer event at Jeddah’s Corniche Circuit after hitting the barrier at Turn 13. But the message she sent for her dad over the radio was heartbreaking.
The clip is already doing the rounds, and not because it is funny. Izzy Hammond, daughter of Top Gear and The Grand Tour presenter Richard Hammond, walked away from a heavy impact during a Formula E influencer event in Saudi Arabia, after hitting the barrier at Turn 13 of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. The internet will inevitably do what it does.
Hammond was taking part in the Duals stage of Formula E’s Evo Sessions, a head to head fastest-lap format where creators represent teams. The 25-year-old said she was checked over by medical staff and was fine, before adding with gallows humour that “the car’s not”. She also admitted what many would feel, but few would say out loud in the immediate aftermath, “My first thought when I was say in that wall was ‘oh my god, everyone’s watching, my dad’s watching.
“‘He’s going to cry or something. Can someone just tell him I’m ok?'”
Formula E Evo Sessions crash at Jeddah, what happened
This was not a parking-lot stunt or a slow-speed PR run. Hammond “smashed into a barrier” at speed at Turn 13, and even she did not downplay it. “It wasn’t a small crash. If you’re going to crash, you’ve got to really crash,” she said. “I saw the wall coming and knew I was going to enter it at speed.”
Jeddah’s Corniche Circuit is a high commitment ribbon of tarmac, visually spectacular, physically unforgiving, and lined with barriers that do not negotiate. It is the kind of place that makes even experienced racing drivers look tidy when they get it right, and look very human when they do not.
Hammond was competing for Team Senor Frogs alongside other influencers including Joshua Larkin (TheBurntChip), William Lenney (WillNe), Arthur Frederick (ArthurTV) and Ethan Payne (Behzinga). That roster tells you exactly what Formula E is trying to do, pull new audiences closer to the sport by letting familiar faces experience the machinery.
Richard Hammond’s legacy
Richard Hammond was almost killed in September 2006 when a 300mph jet-powered dragster he was driving veered off the track at Elvington airfield near York, during a land speed record attempt while being filmed. That history makes Izzy’s instinctive thought about her dad watching feel painfully relatable.
The good news is Hammond escaped unhurt.
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