Hamilton’s W13 landed heavily after launch when it made contact with Alonso on the first lap. Video from Alonso and other cars following showed fluid coming from the rear of the Mercedes, with Hamilton reporting that he could feel damage. The team studied the telemetry from the car and about 38 seconds after the impact its engineer Peter Bonnington said: “Back up, no full load, part throttle, part throttle.” Shortly after the impact, Bonnington urged Hamilton to park on the right side of the track. Hamilton continued slowly while looking for a place to pull up before responding to further requests to stop, turning off the power unit about 90 seconds after his hard landing. Bonnington’s urgent messages and smoke from the car suggested that all might not be well with the V6 after running it without coolant, even for a relatively short time. A Mercedes spokesperson confirmed to Motorsport.com that the power unit has been returned to Brixworth for examination and therefore a verdict on whether it can be used again, noting that the health of the V6 was “definitely a concern”. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13 crash with Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522 Hamilton had only used two V6s before taking his third of the year on Friday at Spa, so the example in question was almost brand new and so was expected to complete around seven race weekends – and potentially allow Hamilton to make it to the end of 2022 without further changes. Losing him from the pool will be costly. Hamilton is also currently at the limit with its MGU-K final (also new at Spa), turbo, MGU-H, control electronics and energy storage, and so any further examples of these elements will penalize the network. Read also: The team says its previous power units still work. However, they will have covered a lot of kilometers by now and usually teams save such engines for Friday practice and Hamilton will clearly benefit from a new example for Monza. Hamilton’s gearbox also took a hard hit when the car landed at Spa and the gearbox carrier broke. The interiors are also subject to damage control and, if they are no longer usable, should receive a third set at Zandvoort. This will not incur a penalty.
