Art of Gears
Fansided

Richard Hammond Crash: Swiss Hillclimb Event Organizers Fined $5,000

By Sanjoy Alexander

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Richard Hammond and his Rimac Concept One crash continue to have aftershocks and now it’s the turn of the event organizers to pay the price, or the fine in this case.

It isn’t a hefty sum. But the event organizers of the Swiss Hill climb event which has now received global fame due to a certain Richard Hammond crashing an expensive electric hypercar, will now have to pay more than $5,000 – $5,141 to be exact – as fine. The penalty was slapped on them by Switzerland’s sporting authority – Auto Sport Schweiz.

Richard Hammond was piloting the Rimac Concept One up the hillclimb course at Hemberg Bergrennen while shooting for season of Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour show, when the crash happened. The car spun out of the road, tumbled down the valley and burst into flames. Thankfully, the last part happened after Hammond was rescued from the wreck.

Rimac CEO and Hammond jointly analyzed the crash later once the latter was in a better shape post the accident and hospitalization. Hammond is gradually getting back on his feet now. But he hasn’t fully recovered yet from the knee fracture. This incident has also adversely affected the production plans of what is essentially one of Amazon Prime’s flagship shows.

More from Cars on TV

Clarkson and May were around with a Lamborghini Aventador S and Honda NSX respectively, when Richard Hammond crashed the Rimac.

While the streaming service executives, the makers and the fans of the show were pondering over the status of the production, Switzerland’s sporting authority, Auto Sport Schweiz did their own share of investigation into the matter. They reached the conclusion that the runs that Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May had put in at the Hemberg Bergrennen hillclimb course did not comply with the FIA’s International Sporting Code.

Next: Richard Hammond Crashes In A Rimac Concept One

The sporting authority thereby slapped the $5k fine and issued six-month license suspension to race director Christian Muller and three stewards, Hermann Muller, Daniel Lenglet and Karl Marty. Since the hillclimb event was part of the Swiss Hillclimb Championship and as Hammond’s antics had attracted not-so-positive global media attention – the committee also added that the show runs were not in the interests of the sport.

Source: Motorsport

Home/Cars on TV