Lewis Hamilton has reiterated his commitment to compete in the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend despite suffering from serious back pain.
Hamilton claimed after the race in Azerbaijan on Sunday that he had been “praying for the race to end, noting halfway through that he was suffering from back pain, as he and Mercedes have likely been the team hardest afflicted by the ‘porpoising’ on their car.
Both Hamilton and George Russell’s cars were spotted bouncing around Baku’s 2.2-kilometer start/finish straight, with the seven-time World Champion eventually finishing fourth behind his teammate.
Because of the severity of Hamilton’s injuries, he was spotted in parc fermé struggling to get out of his car, and team principal Toto Wolff even stated that he doubted whether his driver would even race in Canada this weekend.
But, for the time being, Hamilton has put those fears to rest, confirming his intention to compete in Montreal, where he won his first Formula One race in 2007.
In a Monday update, Hamilton stated that he had awoken feeling “good” after receiving treatment from his physiotherapist Angela Cullen and that he would not be missing the race in Montreal.
“Yesterday was tough and had some troubles sleeping but have woke up feeling positive today,” Hamilton said on Instagram. “Back is a little sore and bruised but nothing serious thankfully.”
“I’ve had acupuncture and physio with Ang and am on the way to my team to work with them on improving.”
“We have to keep fighting. No time like the present to pull together and we will. I’ll be there this weekend, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Seeing online that a lot of people are concerned about me with how awful it looked out there. I’ll be honest it looks terrible and feels 100 times worse.”
“Definitely some recovering and hard work with the team to do before Montreal to overcome this hurdle. Feeling better already, though, and motivated me to keep pushing.”
Porpoising is becoming an issue of concern in Formula 1, with an increasing number of drivers expressing worries about their long-term health as a result of the additional strain placed on their head and back as the cars bounce — with teams wary of losing performance by raising ride height.
The concept of the FIA intervening in the matter was dismissed by Red Bull team manager Christian Horner, who even accused other teams of ordering their drivers to complain about porpoising in order to get the governing body’s attention.
