Lewis Hamilton was trialing a new pedal layout when he crashed at Circuit de Catalunya on Wednesday during his pre-season preparations with Ferrari.
The seven-time world champion was behind the wheel of a 2023 Ferrari as part of his adaptation process to the team ahead of the 2025 season when he lost control and hit the barriers in the fast final sector.
Ferrari downplayed the incident, providing no official details, but reports suggest the crash caused bodywork and suspension damage around 11am, forcing the cancellation of Charles Leclerc's scheduled afternoon running in the same car.
According to La Repubblica and Sky Italia, Hamilton had been experimenting with a new pedal layout after encountering difficulties with Ferrari's standard setup during his initial Fiorano run last week.
There are also whispers that Hamilton is struggling to adapt to Ferrari's Brembo braking system, having spent his entire Mercedes career using Carbon Industries brakes.
Spanish newspaper Marca reported that Hamilton inquired about the possibility of racing with Carbon Industries brakes in 2025, though both Brembo and a Ferrari source denied any plans for such a change.
Meanwhile, Virgilio Motori suggests Hamilton has been refining his 'trail braking' technique to better suit Brembo's characteristics.
Hamilton's high-profile switch to Ferrari, which led to Carlos Sainz's departure, has sparked widespread discussion.
"I read that Luca di Montezemolo is not very happy," Russian F1 commentator Alexey Popov noted.
"(Flavio) Briatore has doubts, even (Toto) Wolff, although we saw both love and hate from him (Wolff) last year.
Many will say 'Your career is declining at the age of 40'.
"Yes, in qualifying last year, he lost a lot to (George) Russell. But knowing all year that he is leaving and Russell is staying - I don't want to say Mercedes gave him bad parts, but maybe the Ferrari will be built more according to his wishes."
Former F1 driver and recently-axed steward Johnny Herbert weighed in on Hamilton's move to Ferrari, which has dominated headlines globally.
"From what Lewis has been saying so far, his motivation is definitely not lacking," Herbert commented.
"I could probably criticise him a bit and say there have been more mistakes from him than I've seen before, but I think the situation at Mercedes didn't help. It's down to Fred Vasseur to give him the car that he can actually achieve in."
Before Hamilton's crash, Leclerc spoke to Sky Italia about Ferrari's preparations for the upcoming season.
"I am very confident because we are doing everything well at the moment and, as a team, we are much more solid," he said.
"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 it. We just focus on ourselves and try to do the best job possible," Leclerc added.
