Lewis Hamilton said on Sunday that his “heart sank” as he feared serious injury to a member of his Ferrari pit crew after he knocked him over at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton drove into the mechanic on the right side of his car as he pulled out away from his stop during the race; Ferrari later confirmed the mechanic was unhurt.
Hamilton and Ferrari escaped a sporting punishment for the incident, allowing him to hold on to his fourth-place finish.
Ferrari was instead fined £25,000 (€30,000), with £8,500 (€10,000) suspended for 12 months on the condition a similar infringement does not occur.
Drivers react to a light going green in front of them which signals when to accelerate away from the pits.
“The green light went, and so I went,” Hamilton explained later. “You’re looking over here [at the green light] and not over there [at the pit crew].
“That’s more on the team, ultimately. But when it happened, I noticed him and I stopped and what went through my mind at that moment was when Kimi [Räikkönen] hit and broke the leg, and my heart really sank for a second. I’m really grateful he’s OK.”
The incident Hamilton referred to was the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix, when then-Ferrari driver Raikkonen drove over the leg of mechanic Francesco Cigorini, who suffered a double bone break.
Hamilton was left waiting to hear whether he would keep fourth place on Sunday evening.
The seven-time world champion was disappointed with that result anyway, blaming himself for crashing out of final practice on Saturday, something he said put the team on the back foot in terms of his setup for the rest of the weekend.
“Just ultimately a difficult weekend,” Hamilton said on Sunday. “I mean, I take on responsibility for my incident yesterday, which then had a knock-on effect with the setup not being right, and then out of place in qualifying, because I think with the set-up right, I would have been probably... I think we could have been third or second.”
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Hamilton’s pit stop collision came after he had served a five-second penalty -- where his car sat stationary in the pit box -- for a collision with Mercedes driver George Russell on the opening lap.
Russell later said he felt the collision was a “racing incident” and not one warranting a penalty for his former teammate.
Hamilton added: “[Saturday’s crash] meant starting further back, and then I was in a position where George obviously, it looked like he lost power, and then he swooped around the outside, and just had a small coming together.
“I got damaged. Pretty unfortunate to see his race not continue, because you never want to see that. And then in the race, I did the best job I could with the damage that I had, and then also the penalty.”
