Hamilton did everything by the book when driving backwards

Lewis Hamilton made a mistake during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix that he rarely makes. By being a bit too eager he skidded off the track and damaged his front wing. Moving forward out of the gravel proved to be too difficult, so the seven-time champion tried to move backwards. A bit of a strange sight, a Formula 1 car driving backwards out of the gravel, but if it works... why not? But is it allowed?

Safe reversing

What we saw Lewis Hamilton do last Sunday was highly unusual and there are rules for many such situations. The main one being that under no circumstances should other traffic be endangered. Hamilton was very careful in this case, so he was able to 'safely' reverse out of the gravel trap to continue his journey. The stewards did nothing about it because it was within the bounds of the permissible.

In the pit lane, reversing is forbidden, which is literally stated in the regulations. Using reverse on or off the track is not illegal. In fact, reverse is even mandatory for Formula 1 cars, at least nowadays. The regulations prescribe the following in special situations: "If a vehicle leaves the track, the driver may resume driving, but only if it is safe to do so and without gaining a lasting advantage."

Sharp eye and ear by Masi

Although the race commissioners were not heard about this maneuver during and shortly after the race, it appears that Michael Masi did monitor the situation very closely. For Motorsport-Total.com Masi, who inquired with the race director, wrote about why they ignored the situation. All actions were carried out on instructions from Peter 'Bono' Bonnington, who informed Hamilton via radio.

Masi: "It was a [maneuver] where he rolled backwards out of the gravel onto the side of the track. When I listened to Lewis' radio between him and his team, they told him where he was all the time." This proved to be safe in Masi's eyes, so presenting it to the stewards was not necessary.

Masi continued: "In these circumstances, I would not consider reporting it to the commissioners. Incidents like this are always investigated in the light of the circumstances. If Hamilton had brought himself back into the race in a dangerous manner, the scene would have been handled differently."