Gearbox issue deemed cause of Lawson and Gasly Miami GP crash
4th May 2026A gearbox failure has been deemed the reason for Liam Lawson’s, of Racing Bulls, collision with Pierre Gasly, of Alpine, at the Miami Grand Prix.
Feature image credit: Getty Images // Red Bull Content Pool
Gasly’s race at the Miami Grand Prix ended dramatically on lap five as the French driver was involved in a collision with Lawson, which saw the Alpine driver land into the TechPro barriers at turn 17.
Replays initially showed that Lawson had locked up into the last true, hard-breaking, corner and tapped the rear-left tyre of Gasly.
It has sent the French driver up into the air and flipping over until the rear right tyre landed on the TechPro barriers. Thankfully, Gasly was okay and quickly climbed out of the car.
Lawson retired a handful of laps later with mechanical problems, pulling off into the pit lane before being pushed into his garage.
However, after the race, it was determined that a gearbox failure caused the collision. Lawson had confirmed to the stewards that there was a technical issue with his gearbox under braking.
The steward had looked over the in-car data and telemetry and confirmed that there was indeed a gearbox problem, with radio communications supporting the argument.
During the hearing, the officials had considered the possibility that Lawson could have preempted the gearbox failure.
Their findings resulted in their decision that it couldn’t have been possible for Lawson to anticipate this, and they deemed there was nothing the Kiwi could do to avoid the collision. In their report, they said:
“Car 10 (Pierre Gasly), was attempting an outside pass of Car 30 (Liam Lawson) at the entry to Turn 17. Car 10 was clearly ahead prior to the apex and had established its rights under the Driving Standards Guidelines.
“A significant collision occurred and Car 10 was pushed into the barriers, with the car flipping and ending up wedged in the TechPro.
“The driver of Car 30 explained that just before the collision, he had a technical issue as his gearbox failed under braking. The Stewards reviewed the in-car data and telemetry and confirmed that there was clearly a gearbox failure just before the incident in question.
“The radio communications were also consistent with the fact that
there was a gearbox failure.
“We therefore accept the driver’s explanation that this was a failure of a mechanical part in the car and that there was nothing that he could do to avoid the collision.
“We also considered whether the driver of Car 30 had the ability to anticipate the failure of the gearbox and decided that it would not have been possible for him to do so.
“Under the circumstances, the stewards determine that a mechanical failure, not driver error, was the cause of the collision and therefore the driver of Car 30, was not at fault for the collision. We therefore took no further action.”
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
