Racing
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Lewis Hamilton has revealed for the first time that a heavy Ferrari test crash in Barcelona last year left him with a neck injury that pressed a disc into a nerve and limited him for about nine weeks.
Speaking ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion said the damage came when he “hit the wall very hard” during private Ferrari testing. Hamilton said: “I knocked out one of the discs in my neck, protruding into the nerve, so I couldn't do a lot for like nine weeks.”
He described a long period of treatment while still trying to cope with the demands of driving an F1 car. Hamilton said he had “chiropractors every day, physio every day,” that he “couldn't sleep,” was on “a lot of painkillers” and “had to get injections.” He added that he “did everything I could to try to fix it,” but living with it was “not easy in the seat position that you're sitting in.”
Hamilton had not publicly detailed the injury when the crash happened. He later said he “carried that for months” into his first season with Ferrari, adding fresh context to a difficult start with the team that the summaries describe as disappointing.
The timing of the disclosure is significant. It comes just after Hamilton secured his first Ferrari victory at Barcelona-Catalunya on his 31st attempt, part of a stronger 2026 campaign that has also included multiple podiums. He now sits second in the drivers’ championship and moved to within 41 points of the leader after Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired late.
Even with that momentum, Hamilton said his focus remains on execution rather than the standings. “I'm not thinking about the championship,” he said. Instead, he pointed to “each race” and making sure “pit stops, strategy” and the rest of the weekend operation are in sync every time out.
That leaves his injury revelation as more than a medical detail. It explains more of what shaped Hamilton’s early Ferrari struggles, at the same time as his recent results have put him back near the front of the championship fight.