Davidson warns young drivers not to copy Hamilton's damaged Ferrari drive in Madrid FP3

Lewis Hamilton sparked a safety controversy during third practice for the Spanish Grand Prix after crashing at the final corner in Madrid, then attempting to nurse his heavily damaged Ferrari back to the pits despite repeated instructions from his race engineer to stop.

The incident brought out the red flag. Hamilton reversed away from the wall and continued driving with a puncture and the front wing lodged beneath the car — a situation that former F1 driver and analyst Anthony Davidson described as a dangerous and instructive failure of judgement.

“Any young driver that is watching this right now, you don’t do that. You just don’t do that,” Davidson said during the session. “That’s what you could have tried to do, but that rule is there for a reason. If it went under the car completely and jacked your front wheels up and there were marshals on the track, you’ve got to think of all these scenarios.”

Davidson also suggested Hamilton’s team bore some responsibility for the episode. “The team need to give him more information,” he said. “They need to say the front wing is under your car and the race director is going to give us a penalty over this.”

Hamilton eventually pulled over and stopped at the exit of Turn 14 only after being informed that the race director had issued direct instructions to do so — by which point he had already driven a significant distance on the damaged car.

The session resumed after the red flag, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli setting the fastest lap. Hamilton ended the session ninth. At the time of writing, the FIA had yet to confirm whether a penalty would be issued, though Hamilton could face either a fine or a sporting sanction.