“Mercedes gives you wings”: F1 fans react as Lewis Hamilton crashes in FP3 of the Monaco GP

The end of the practice sessions at the 2023 F1 Monaco Grand Prix didn't quite go in the way of Lewis Hamilton as he crashed out in the Mercedes W14 on turn 5, triggering a red flag. Since only a little over five minutes were left in the session, it wasn't resumed by the stewards.

At the moment of the crash, Hamilton was on a hot lap on soft tires. Nearing turn 5, Alex Albon was blue-flagged and made enough way for the Mercedes that was going downhill.

The Briton meanwhile, turned in, a bit too much, perhaps, since he lost the rear of the car a little bit. To correct the oversteer, he turned to the left quickly, hitting the wall and breaking his suspension.

Lewis Hamilton was perfectly okay after the crash, however, his car, after being picked up by the crane, hung around before being suspended in the sky, going through the buildings of Monaco.

Are Mercedes' new upgrades working for Lewis Hamilton?

Mercedes introduced a major new upgrade at Monaco, which is quite a visible change in the design of their sidepod design. The team previously had a 'zero pod' design but it seems they've gotten over it after the start of this season with the W14.

Although it looked promising, Lewis Hamilton hasn't quite been near the top of the practice sessions. Toto Wolff, the team principal, mentioned that there has been no negative feedback from the new upgrade, however, not promising a stronger pace at the same time. Motorsport quoted Wolff:

It is to be noted that the team was originally going to introduce this new upgrade at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, but since it was called off (because of the flooding situation around the region), they decided to bring it to Monaco.

The two tracks are polar opposites of each other. Monaco is arguably the slowest race on the calendar, and it is apparent why it is hard to notice any changes from the upgrades. Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton has been in the top 10 during all three practice sessions.

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Gunaditya is one of Sportskeeda’s more experienced F1 and NASCAR journalists, having authored over 2,500 posts that have garnered over 4 million reads. He has been in this field for over four years and holds a degree in journalism.

When it comes to reporting, he is extremely meticulous with his research and tries his best to analyze every topic in its entirety before filing his story. Gunaditya does so by closely following veterans in the motorsports journalism arena and attempts to understand perspectives without personal bias to ensure his stories are accurate and reliable.

He is an old-schooler with respect to F1 as his favorite driver is Michael Schumacher due to the legendary driver’s adrenaline-fueled racing style, aggressive approach, and the resilience he showed early in his career. Understandably, his favorite constructor is Ferrari.

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