Anthony Davidson believes Ferrari should have given Lewis Hamilton much clearer information after the seven-time world champion attempted to continue with a badly damaged front wing following his Madrid Grand Prix FP3 crash. The British driver eventually stopped on track, but not before trying for several minutes to bring the SF-26 back to the garage despite being instructed to stop.
The incident had already created a significant problem for Ferrari ahead of qualifying. Lewis Hamilton locked up at the final corner of the Madring and hit the barriers, damaging the front wing. The situation then became more complicated when part of the wing became trapped underneath the car, compromising its ability to continue safely and ultimately contributing to the red flag.
Anthony Davidson says Ferrari needed to be clearer with Lewis Hamilton
As Lewis Hamilton attempted to return to the pits, Sky Sports F1 analyst Anthony Davidson argued that Ferrari needed to communicate the seriousness of the situation more directly.
Davidson said the team should have explicitly told Lewis Hamilton that the front wing was underneath the car and warned him that continuing could potentially lead to intervention from Race Control.
“The team need to give him more information,” Davidson said. “They need to say the front wing is under your car and the Race Director is going to give us a penalty over this.”
Ferrari had already instructed Hamilton to stop the car, but the British driver continued in an apparent attempt to reach the garage and preserve as much of the remaining FP3 time as possible. He eventually had to abandon that effort and stopped at Turn 15, bringing out the red flag.
Davidson says Hamilton should have stopped earlier
Davidson was also critical of the decision to keep moving once the damaged front wing had become lodged beneath the SF-26. His concern centred on what could have happened if the broken component had moved further underneath the car.
“Any young driver that is watching this right now, you don’t do that. You just don’t do that,” Davidson said.
He acknowledged that trying to get the car back to the pits was understandable from a competitive point of view, but stressed that the instruction to stop exists for a reason.
“That’s what you could have tried to do [get back to the pits] but that rule is there for a reason,” Davidson added. “If it went under the car completely and jacked your front wheels up and there were marshals on the track, you’ve got to think of all these scenarios.”
Possible penalty adds another concern before qualifying
The sporting consequence remained uncertain at that stage. The seven-time world champion could potentially face further scrutiny for continuing after being told to stop, although the material available does not confirm that the stewards had opened an investigation or issued any penalty.
For Ferrari, the more immediate problem was recovering the damaged SF-26 and returning it to the garage quickly enough for repairs before qualifying. The front wing had taken clear damage in the impact, while the team would also need to inspect the car after it had been driven with part of the broken assembly underneath the floor.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Final practice was Ferrari’s last opportunity to complete setup work before qualifying at a circuit where grid position is expected to be particularly important because overtaking could prove difficult.
The incident therefore created two separate issues for the Maranello team: repairing Lewis Hamilton’s car in time for qualifying, and reviewing whether the communication between pit wall and driver was sufficiently clear once the damaged front wing became trapped underneath the SF-26.
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