I couldn't do a lot for like nine weeks
In the quiet aftermath of his 106th career victory, Lewis Hamilton has revealed that his Spanish Grand Prix triumph was won not from a position of strength, but through months of silent suffering — a herniated disc pressing on a nerve, sustained in a preseason Barcelona crash, that left him barely functional for nine weeks. That he competed at all during that period, let alone won, speaks to something older than sport: the human capacity to endure what others cannot see. The disclosure, made only now as Formula 1 moves to Austria, reframes not just a race result but the entire arc of a champion's first season with Ferrari.
- A violent impact with a Barcelona wall in early 2025 dislodged a disc in Hamilton's neck, pressing directly onto a nerve and leaving him barely able to function for nine weeks.
- Rather than stepping back, Hamilton subjected his injured neck to the brutal G-forces of preseason testing and live race weekends — a physical gamble that few in the paddock knew he was taking.
- Daily chiropractic visits, painkillers, and injections became the hidden scaffolding holding his season together as he quietly raced through one of the most demanding injuries a driver can carry.
- His Spanish Grand Prix victory — long celebrated as a return to form — now reads as something far more hard-won, a triumph extracted from months of concealed pain.
- In Austria, Hamilton is attempting to build momentum, finishing fifth in both Friday practice sessions while edging teammate Leclerc, though questions linger about whether the injury has left any lasting trace.
Lewis Hamilton's victory at the Spanish Grand Prix was celebrated as a comeback — his 106th career win and his first since joining Ferrari in 2025. What no one fully understood at the time was the weight the win actually carried.
Earlier that year, during a private preseason test in Barcelona, Hamilton had crashed hard into a wall. The incident was noted, but its severity was not. The impact herniated a disc in his neck, pressing it directly onto a nerve. For nine weeks, he could barely function — sleeping poorly, relying on daily chiropractic care, painkillers, and injections just to get through each day.
What makes the story remarkable is that he kept racing. Through those nine weeks of recovery, Hamilton participated in preseason testing and competed in actual Formula 1 events, enduring the extreme gravitational forces that demand peak physical conditioning even from healthy drivers. He was doing all of this with a compromised neck, in pain, while his body was still trying to heal.
Hamilton only disclosed the injury this week, as the Formula 1 field gathered in Austria. The revelation reframes the Spanish Grand Prix entirely — a race he won not from a place of restored health, but after months of quietly enduring something serious.
Now at the Red Bull Ring, he is working to build on that result. Friday practice brought fifth-place finishes in both sessions, with Hamilton narrowly ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc each time. Whether the injury has fully resolved, and what shape the rest of his season will take, remains an open question.
Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago—his 106th career victory and his first since joining Ferrari in 2025. It was framed as a comeback, a return to form after a difficult season. The real story, which Hamilton only revealed this week while the Formula 1 circus was setting up in Austria, was far more consequential than anyone had understood.
In early 2025, during a private preseason test at the Barcelona circuit, Hamilton crashed hard into a wall. The incident was reported at the time, but its severity remained hidden. The impact dislodged a disc in his neck, and that disc pressed directly onto a nerve. For nine weeks, he could barely function.
"I hit the wall very hard last year in testing," Hamilton told The Athletic. "Knocked out one of the discs in my neck, which was into the nerve. So, I couldn't do a lot for like nine weeks." The recovery was grinding. He made daily appointments with a chiropractor. Sleep became difficult. He took painkillers. He received injections. He tried everything available to him to heal.
What makes the disclosure remarkable is not just the injury itself, but what he did while carrying it. During those nine weeks of recovery, Hamilton participated in preseason testing sessions and raced in actual Formula 1 events. He was subjecting a compromised neck to the extreme gravitational forces that modern racing demands—forces that require drivers to train their neck muscles relentlessly just to survive a normal season. He was doing this while injured, while in pain, while his body was still healing.
By the time the Spanish Grand Prix arrived, Hamilton had been living with the injury for months. He had endured the physical punishment of racing with a herniated disc pressing on a nerve. And then he won. The victory, in retrospect, carries a different weight than it seemed to carry two weeks ago.
Now Hamilton is in Austria for the Red Bull Ring race, attempting to build on that win. His early results are mixed. He finished fifth in both Friday practice sessions, though he did edge out his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in both runs. The question now is whether the injury has fully resolved, whether the nine weeks of treatment and the months of racing through pain have left any lasting mark on his performance, or whether this is simply the natural rhythm of a season still finding its shape.
Notable Quotes
I hit the wall very hard last year in testing. Knocked out one of the discs in my neck, which was into the nerve. So, I couldn't do a lot for like nine weeks.— Lewis Hamilton, to The Athletic
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why reveal this now, two weeks after the win? Why not before?
Because the injury was private, and the focus was on the race itself. But once he'd won, once there was proof he could perform at that level, the story became worth telling—it reframes what the victory actually cost him.
Did Ferrari know the full extent of it while he was racing?
That's not entirely clear from what he said. But they would have known he crashed and was injured. Whether they understood he was racing through a herniated disc pressing on a nerve—that's a different question.
How do you even race like that? The G-forces alone would be excruciating.
You have to. You have no choice. You manage the pain, you get treatment between sessions, you tape yourself up, you take what you're given. F1 drivers are trained to endure. This was just endurance under worse conditions than usual.
Does this change how we should view his 2025 season?
Completely. If he was racing injured for most of it, then the struggles weren't just about car performance or adaptation to a new team. They were about driving with a nerve being compressed in his neck.
And now he's won in Spain. Is that the end of the story?
It's the beginning of the next one. The question is whether the injury stays fixed, whether the treatment holds, whether he can sustain this level of performance now that he's healthy.