A recent fan video clip has appeared to eliminate any suspicion that Lewis Hamilton touched the rear wing of Sergio Perez’s car following the Spanish Grand Prix this past Sunday. Hamilton, pictured in full Mercedes team wear and a face mask, was on his way to the Circuit de Catalunya’s medical centre after the race to give a sample for a doping test, where at this time the cars were lined up in parc ferme. It was at this point where Hamilton was adjudged to have placed his right hand upon the rear wing of the RB18. As many fans will know, touching a car in parc ferme can have severe repercussions because it’s against FIA regulations – like when Max Verstappen was fined 50,000 euros for doing so to Hamilton’s Mercedes last year in Brazil post the qualifying session.While it may seem in the still image that Hamilton has his hand on the car, while looking down at it, closely followed by trainer Angela Cullen, it really is uncertain that he may or may not be touching the Red Bull – it could be said that he may be trying to avoid the car by edging his way past between the railing and the car itself. The video clip, which was published on Twitter by @LuisArochi24, supports this by showing Hamilton and Cullen appearing eager to not make any kind of connection with the car and risk being subjects to an FIA investigation, as Verstappen was last year.

According to article 60.5 of the 2022 Formula 1 sporting regulations, “drivers must not interfere with parc ferme protocols in any way.”

Verstappen’s defence in his case for the Interlagos incident was that it was something that his peers do on a regular basis.

The FIA at the time stated: “It is clear that to the stewards that it has become a habit of the drivers to touch cars after qualifying and races.

Lewis Hamilton incident

“This was the also the explanation of Verstappen, that it was simply habit to touch this area of the car which has been a point of speculation in recent races.

“This general tendency has been seen as mostly harmless and so has not been uniformly policed. Nevertheless, it is a breach of the parc feme regulation and has significant potential to cause harm.”