Hamilton Battles Brembo Brakes After Crash in Testing

Lewis Hamilton crashed during Ferrari testing while adapting to a new pedal layout and mastering Brembo brakes, replacing Mercedes’ setup.

Lewis Hamilton was testing a new pedal layout when he crashed yesterday at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona.

As part of the preparations for the seven-time world champion and Ferrari ahead of their first season together in 2025, Hamilton was driving an SF-23 when he hit the barriers in the final fast sector.

Ferrari downplayed the severity of the crash at Turn 12 but provided no details, with speculation suggesting that bodywork components (front and rear wings) and the suspension were damaged around 11 a.m. The planned afternoon running for his teammate Charles Leclerc in the same car was canceled.

The car was fully repaired in time before the track closed, but low visibility ultimately kept the Monegasque driver in the garage.

What is known is that Lewis Hamilton was completely unharmed while testing a new pedal layout in the car, after facing difficulties with the standard configuration during his debut at Fiorano last week.

Hamilton reportedly also struggled to adapt to Ferrari’s Brembo braking system, being so accustomed to Carbon Industrie brakes during his long tenure at Mercedes F1.

Hamilton has since focused on perfecting the “trail braking” technique, which works better with Brembo brakes at Ferrari. According to one of his engineers, this was a major area of progress for him.

Before Wednesday’s incident, Leclerc said: “I am very confident because we are doing everything right at the moment, and as a team, we are much stronger.”

“But Formula 1 is a relative sport, and we can only know what we are doing. We don’t know if Red Bull or McLaren have found something very special for their cars, so it’s very difficult to say anything about that.”

“We are simply focusing on ourselves and trying to do the best job possible.”

Today, Ferrari’s potential reserve drivers, Antonio Giovinazzi and Dino Beganovic, are behind the wheel for the final day of testing in Barcelona.

The Swede has accumulated the 40 points required to obtain an FIA super license but must cover 300 kilometers in an F1 car to validate it.

Beganovic could be given Free Practice 1 outings during race weekends in 2025, as the revised regulations now require teams to grant rookies four appearances in a season (instead of two previously).

Update: Ferrari has just confirmed, unsurprisingly, that its 2025 Formula 1 car will be named the SF-25, following the lineage of the SF-23 and SF-24. The Italian marque has no special milestone to celebrate this year, unlike in 2022 when the F1-75 was introduced to mark Ferrari’s 75th anniversary.