Mercedes reveal 45G impact for Lewis Hamilton in Fernando Alonso crash

Mercedes confirmed that Lewis Hamilton will be at full health for Zandvoort despite a “large impact” on the opening lap in Spa.

Benefitting from grid penalties ahead, Hamilton found himself starting the Belgian Grand Prix from P4, sharing the second row of the grid with his former McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The pair would collide though on the opening lap of the Belgian Grand Prix as Hamilton tried to go around the outside of Alonso at Les Combes.

With Alonso branding Hamilton an “idiot” who “only knows how to drive and start in first”, the aftermath of that collision has served to stir up past tensions between the pair.

During the incident Hamilton’s Mercedes W13 went airborne before slamming back down onto the circuit, Mercedes now revealing just how heavy that impact was.

The team did confirm though Hamilton is good to go at Zandvoort, part two of this triple-header, with only frustration lingering as his race ended on the opening lap.

“It was a large, large impact,” said Mercedes’ motorsport strategy director James Vowles in the team’s Belgian GP debrief. “It was measured at 45G on the SDR recorder in the car which is very big on a vertical load.

“He will be okay, he will be back in Zandvoort fighting, I think primarily for him he is frustrated, frustrated that he had a very fast race car, and a podium was possible but he, like all of us, are here to fight and continue moving forward.”

Hamilton initially attempted to carry on after the shunt, though was quickly told by Mercedes to park the car and retire it from the race.

Vowles pointed out that Alonso’s onboard camera did a good job of showing what was wrong, with coolant visibly spraying from Hamilton’s Mercedes.

The team are now analysing the extent of the damage before the Dutch Grand Prix.

“There is enough photos floating around the internet to show just how high the car was and how it landed and the impact was large,” said Vowles.

“What we noticed almost immediately after the impact on the ground was a loss of coolant. You can actually see on the onboard of Alonso that coolant really just flying out towards him and then you started to see temperatures rise fairly quickly and that was the primary reason for stopping him on track.

“It will now take a few days to review all the components, clearly there is going to be overloads to the suspension components and gearboxes and we need to make sure to understand the full extent of what’s required before Zandvoort.”