Lewis Hamilton suffered a 45G impact after hitting the ground following his collision with Fernando Alonso at Spa-Francorchamps.
Hamilton and Alonso came together at Les Combes on the opening lap of the Belgian GP. The Briton’s car went airborne and hit the ground shortly after.
Mercedes motorsport strategy director James Vowles revealed that Hamilton had suffered a 45G impact at the moment he hit the ground.
“It was a large, large impact. It was measured at 45G on the [safety data recorder] in the car which is very big on a vertical load,” he said in Mercedes’ post-Belgian GP debrief.
“He will be okay, he will be back in Zandvoort fighting. I think primarily for him he is frustrated, frustrated that he had a very fast race car and a podium was possible. But he, like all of us, is here to fight and continue moving forward.”
Vowles added that Mercedes are evaluating the damage Hamilton’s car and power unit received as a result of the accident.
“There are enough photos floating around the internet to show just how high the car was and how it landed and the impact was large.
“What we noticed almost immediately after the impact on the ground was a loss of coolant. You can actually see on the onboard of Alonso that coolant really just flying out towards him and then you started to see temperatures rise fairly quickly and that was the primary reason for stopping him on track.
“It will now take a few days to review all the components. Clearly, there is going to be overloads to the suspension components and gearboxes and we need to make sure to understand the full extent of what’s required before Zandvoort.”
