Stewards give judgment on Hamilton and Mercedes after Miami incident

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes can be relieved. The Formula 1 team had to report to the stewards because of an incident that occurred during a pit stop on Hamilton's car in sprint qualifying in Miami.

Hamilton and Mercedes not penalised for incident

During sprint qualifying at the Miami International Autodrome, a notification appeared from race control announcing that a pitlane incident by Hamilton was under investigation. After the session ended, it became clear which incident was involved. It concerned 'failure of team personnel to wear helmets' during Hamilton's pit stop during SQ2.

The stewards listened to Mercedes' story and watched video footage, after which they decided not to penalise the team. The reason: there were more F1 teams whose staff walked around the pits without helmets and carried out work on cars. Punishing several or possibly even all teams was deemed disproportionate.

However, the stewards did ask the FIA to consider whether changes should be made to the way they work during qualifying or sprint qualifying, or whether a rule change might be needed.

Bottas gets grid penalty

On the other, there was a driver who received a penalty: Valtteri Bottas. His explanation was deemed insufficient by the stewards, who were investigating an incident between the Finn and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who was hindered by Bottas during a fast lap. The Stake F1 driver will receive a grid penalty of three places for the sprint race.