Formula One fans have been contemplating whether or not there could be fines issued to Lewis Hamilton after the Mercedes driver brushed up against one of his rivals’ cars.
Hamilton was on his way back to the team garage after being called in for a standard anti-doping test, cutting through the parc ferme area of the paddock to do so.
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He had to squeeze past the parked up Red Bulls as each car awaited FIA inspection after the race, with footage of him doing so captured by a fan who pondered whether or not the seven-time world champion had touched the Red Bull’s rear wing.
Drivers are prohibited from making any contact with another team’s car for obvious reasons, with controversy erupting last year after eventual champion Max Verstappen was fined for testing the flexibility of the Mercedes rear wing.
Verstappen was fined 50,000 euros for that transgression, although coincidentally on that occasion at the Brazilian GP, Hamilton’s wing was actually found to not be to FIA standard.
However last year Verstappen could be clearly seen testing the flexibility of the Mercedes wing, while Hamilton was seen carfully picking his way past the Red Bull in the video from the Spanish GP.
Prominent F1 commentator Will Buxton dismissed the conversation as little more than F1 ‘hoopla’.
“From this … doesn’t look comparable to the Verstappen Brazil incident,” Buxton posted on Twitter.
“Appears he’s just walking through. You’re normally not supposed to enter parc ferme, regardless of whether you’re a driver or not, but this doesn’t appear to be the hoopla being suggested.”
Fellow F1 reporter Jon Noble agreed, saying that it was clear Hamilton was attempting to avoid unneccesary contact after last year’s shenanigans.
“Here is video of the incident, which looks much more like he is squeezing behind it on way back from doping test to the paddock,” he wrote.
Hamilton was fifth in the second Mercedes despite a first lap collision with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen dropping him to the back of the grid after needing a tyre change.