F1 fans are saying the same thing about Lewis Hamilton’s ‘weird’ spin at Barcelona Shakedown

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Lewis Hamilton was back behind the wheel of the Ferrari on day four on F1’s Barcelona Shakedown. He was able to complete his first dry laps with the SF-26 after rain on Tuesday.

Ferrari sat out both day one and three, which means they are expected to run on both Thursday and Friday. Hamilton got behind the wheel for the morning session, with Leclerc taking over in the afternoon.

A video shared on social media shows Hamilton spinning on the exit of the long, sweeping turn 10 as he approached the turn 11 kink. After the sharp 360, he was able to continue.

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It isn’t the seven-time world champion’s first mishap of the test. He ran wide and into the gravel during his wet running earlier in the week before recovering.

F1 fans think Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari spin was ‘strange’

While there was no harm done from Hamilton’s spin, F1 fans found the footage unusual.

One noted that it appeared to be on an installation lap, simply writing ‘oof’. This does give Hamilton the excuse of cold tyres, not helped by the 12-degree January temperatures in Barcelona.

Another fan said that ‘the weird part’ of the spin was that Hamilton ‘wasn’t even going fast’. Fellow users agreed that it was ‘strange’ and ‘odd’.

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It’s rare to see a driver pirouette in a straight line at low speed’. One commenter theorised that a new-for-2026 part on the Ferrari had failed.

“That looks super weird from this distance,” they wrote. “Like all grip just disappeared. Active aero going awry maybe?”

Max Verstappen has also made a rare blunder in Barcelona

Given the private nature of the test, there won’t be any high-quality, close-up replays, unless F1 feature the moment in their short highlights package. Ferrari can also choose not to address the incident.

Hamilton isn’t the only superstar driver to make a notable mistake in the brand-new generation of cars. Max Verstappen briefly brought out the red flags at the start of day two when he kicked some gravel onto the track.

Hamilton sounded positive after completing his first significant mileage in the new car. He noted that porpoising, a phenomenon he famously hated in the ground-effect cars, seemed to be a thing of the past.

The Italian media believe Ferrari have taken guidance from Hamilton in developing their 2026 car. He should, on that basis, be much more comfortable this year than he was in the SF-25.