Richard Hammond’s daughter escapes serious injury after ‘monumental’ Formula E crash

Izzy Hammond crashed a Formula E car into a wall but only suffered a ‘sore neck’. Photo / Instagram

Izzy Hammond, daughter of former Top Gear presenter Richard, has escaped serious injury after crashing into a concrete wall during a Formula E influencer event in Saudi Arabia.

The 25-year-old, whose father was almost killed filming the flagship BBC car show in 2006, wrecked her Lola Yamaha ABT during the latest edition of Formula E Evo Sessions in Jeddah.

A near head-on collision at what she said was “24G” (24 times the force of gravity) destroyed the right side of the vehicle and left debris strewn over the track at the modified Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

After walking away with little more than a sore neck, she revealed her thoughts had immediately turned to her father, whose near-fatal crash filming Top Gear was followed by a second serious accident presenting The Grand Tour.

She told the BBC: “My first thought when I was in that wall was, ‘Oh my God, everyone’s watching, my dad’s watching. He’s going to cry or something. Can someone just tell him I’m okay?!’”

Hammond, who had earlier said over the team radio, “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine,” added: “It wasn’t a small crash. If you’re going to crash, you’ve got to really crash. I saw the wall coming and knew I was going to enter it at speed.”

She also posted a video about the incident to her 288,000 Instagram followers, saying: “Hey guys, I don’t know if you saw but I crashed the f*** out of the car. Massive apologies to my team.

“How did I do it? I don’t think I had enough heat in my tyres. So I was trying to brake and I was trying to turn with no heated tyres so it all went a little bit t**s up and I hit the wall with 24Gs.

“So my neck hurts a little bit, but I am absolutely fine, so thank you everyone that is concerned.

“This stuff happens, and now I can say I’m a proper racing driver because I’ve had a monumental crash.”

At the time, she had been competing in the event for Team Señor Frogs, alongside several other social-media influencers.

Hammond was born five years before her father, 56, escaped death in a crash that almost led to Top Gear being cancelled.

He had been attempting a land-speed record driving a Vampire jet car at 320mph (515km/h) when a tyre blew, causing it to spin out of control and flip over. He suffered serious head injuries and spent a fortnight in a coma.

Another crash followed during filming of The Grand Tour in 2017 when a £2m ($4.5m) supercar he was driving in Switzerland flipped and burst into flames.

He was airlifted to hospital, where he was treated for serious injuries, including a fractured knee.

Production on Top Gear was halted in 2023 after Andrew Flintoff, the former England cricketer, suffered life-changing injuries while filming the show the previous year.

The Hammonds present a podcast together called Who We Are Now, which focuses on personal growth, masculinity and mental health.

In 2023, Izzy also joined DriveTribe, a social-networking platform founded by her father and former Top Gear co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May as a hub for automotive content.

In August, she revealed she had crashed her first car into “several parked cars” while driving to school “on an icy winter’s morning”.

She is the eldest of two daughters from her father’s 28-year marriage to her mother, the end of which he compared in September to his Top Gear crash.

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