Formula 1 is in Austria for a race at the Red Bull Ring, but fresh in everyone’s mind is the Spanish Grand Prix from two weeks ago that saw Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton back on top of the podium.
It was the British driver’s 106th grand prix win, but just his first with Ferrari, a team he joined in 2025.
The win was looked at as a bit of a comeback story, but most thought Hamilton was just coming back from a lousy 2025 season for him and Ferrari.
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It turns out, it was actually a return from quite a bit more.
Back in early 2025, Hamilton took part in a private preseason test with Ferrari and crashed during it. The crash was reported at the time, but the severity wasn’t known until this week.
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The crash — which occurred, ironically, at the same Barcelona circuit Hamilton won at two weeks ago — left him with a pretty serious neck injury.
“I hit the wall very hard last year in testing,” Hamilton said, per The Athletic. “Knocked out one of the discs in my neck, which was into the nerve. So, I couldn’t do a lot for like nine weeks.”
Hamilton said that during that time, he had daily chiropractic appointments and struggled with sleeping.
“I had painkillers, I had to get an injection,” he said. “I did everything I could to try to fix it.”
What’s wild is that Hamilton took part in preseason testing and a couple of races in those nine weeks with the bad neck.
Formula 1 drivers train their necks to withstand the extreme G-forces they deal with during races, so imagine having to get through those with an injury like that.
Hamilton will be looking to follow up his win in Spain with another strong performance in Austria. His weekend in Austria isn’t off to the hottest start as he finished P5 in both of Friday’s practice sessions.
However, he did finish ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc in both sessions.
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