F1 News
Coulthard explains theory behind Hamilton's testing smash: 'Simple as this'
David Coulthard believes that Lewis Hamilton crashed his Ferrari in testing due to a misunderstanding of how the car works. The former Red Bull, McLaren, and Williams driver is certain that the crash will only act as a minor teething problem for the Brit, who is still getting to grips with the culture shock at Ferrari.
The seven-time world champion reportedly crashed at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in a testing previous cars (TPC) session in his second Ferrari outing. The crash was severe enough to disrupt the session, but thankfully, Hamilton walked away unscathed.
Ferrari has not revealed why Hamilton went off the circuit, but Coulthard has his own theory behind the incident.
Speaking on his Formula For Success podcast, the 13-time Grand Prix winner stated that Hamilton's incident should not become a cause for concern. He first jumped to defend Hamilton, stating that even the greats have crashes.
Coulthard defends Hamilton: 'Senna and Schumacher had offs'
“And it doesn’t matter if you were the late great Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher or the current Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton, we can all have an off at any certain point. And I see it as simple as this: he has to get used to the control systems in that Ferrari, the power delivery," the Scot stated.
“We’re dealing with hybrid engines, so it’s not the sort of natural torque acceleration of an internal combustion engine. Electrical energy comes in like that. And I suspect it was just he’s so embedded in his mind about the Mercedes hybrid Formula One engine that he was simply caught out."
Hamilton was part of Mercedes from 2013 to 2024, winning six drivers titles throughout his tenure. Coulthard believes that Hamilton still needs to adjust to a completely new car ethos, which takes time.
Coulthard convinced: 'It takes a few races to adjust'
“But that’s exactly why I agree with you that it’ll take a few races because there’s testing that a driver does where you are very consciously going through the ABCs of the braking, the turn in, the throttle application. You’re in that space because you’re developing the car and giving the feedback to the engineers," Coulthard continued.
"And then, of course, there’s racing, where you are just instinctively seeing and doing. You’re logging away what the car is doing on lap five or lap 10, or all of the good things that you need to do to continue to give the feedback, but it’s just your instinctive self when you’re in a grand prix. So there’s two different elements of being a race driver.”
Pre-season testing for the 2025 season officially begins in Bahrain from February 26-28. The first race weekend takes place in Australia on the weekend of March 14-16.
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