Hamilton shares post-crash handshake
- Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto were filmed sharing a friendly handshake after their Miami Grand Prix clash, signaling that the opening-lap anger had cooled. - The key detail is the swing in tone: Hamilton had earlier gestured in frustration after contact damaged his Ferrari and compromised his race. - It matters because Miami had looked like another flashpoint, but both drivers instead turned it into a small sportsmanship moment.
Formula 1 is built on grudges, tiny margins, and drivers saying they’ve “moved on” when they obviously haven’t. That’s why this Lewis Hamilton–Franco Colapinto moment landed. After their opening-lap contact in Miami damaged Hamilton’s Ferrari and triggered an angry in-car reaction, the two were later seen sharing a relaxed handshake and brief exchange away from the track. The clip is small, but the contrast is the story — a race incident that looked heated in the moment ended with both drivers acting like adults. ### What actually happened in Miami? Hamilton and Colapinto made contact on the opening lap of the Miami Grand Prix while battling in the midfield. The clash hurt Hamilton’s race because his Ferrari picked up damage, and Hamilton said afterward that the contact had basically ruined his afternoon. Colapinto, meanwhile, kept going and came away with one of the strongest results of his F1 career in a weekend Alpine viewed very positively. (motorsport.com) ### Why did it look heated at first? Because it was. Untelevised footage and later reports showed Hamilton reacting angrily after the incident, including a middle-finger gesture aimed at Colapinto once the Ferrari driver got back past him. That part spread fast because it fit the normal F1 script — contact, damage, blame, then a simmering feud. (lat.motorsport.com) ### So what changed after the race? The post-race clip changed the tone. Hamilton approached Colapinto in a friendly way, the two shared a handshake, and the exchange read less like a confrontation than a quick reset. Fans latched onto it because it undercut the drama that had built up around the onboard footage. (telegraph.co.uk) ### Why did fans call it “wholesome”? Because F1 usually gives you the opposite. Drivers often cool things down in public, but this looked spontaneous and human rather than managed. Hamilton had every reason to stay annoyed — his car was damaged and his race was compromised — yet the visible end note was a grin-and-handshake moment, not another complaint. (motorsport.com) ### Was anyone making a big scandal out of it? For a few days, yes. The gesture footage got attention because Hamilton is Hamilton — every visible flash of frustration becomes content. But the handshake made the whole thing feel smaller and more normal. Turns out this was probably just one of those first-lap incidents drivers hate in real time and file away pretty quickly once the helmets come off. That last part is an inference from the sequence of events, but it fits what was shown publicly. (motorsport.com) ### Why does Colapinto matter here? Because the moment also says something about how he’s being read in the paddock. Colapinto is still building his place in F1, and Miami was framed as a strong weekend for him. A messy clash with a seven-time champion could have turned into a reputation story. Instead, the post-race exchange made it look like standard hard racing — annoying, costly, but not dirty enough to poison the relationship. (telegraph.co.uk) ### Does this change anything competitively? Not really. Hamilton still lost out in Miami because of the damage, and Ferrari’s bigger concerns are pace and execution, not one handshake. But these moments do shape the mood around a driver and a weekend. In a sport that can get petty fast, a little bit of visible perspective goes a long way. (motorsport.com) ### Bottom line The news here isn’t that Hamilton got angry — that part was obvious on Sunday, May 4. The news is that by Saturday, May 10, the story had flipped into a sportsmanship clip. Miami started as a collision and ended as a reminder that not every F1 flashpoint becomes a feud. (telegraph.co.uk) (lat.motorsport.com)
