The crowdfund for Billy Monger, the Formula Four driver who suffered life-changing injuries in a crash on Sunday, has raised more than double its target less than 24 hours after it started.
Monger has undergone amputations to both lower legs following his crash at Donington Park and is being kept in an induced coma. A crowdfund to help pay for his rehabilitation was set up by his family and team yesterday “to help give Billy and his family the best chance to fight these injuries that will affect Billy’s life so massively”.
The fund reached its target of £260,000 before midnight. Contributions from motor racing fans and several famous names have now pushed the total amount raised to more than twice that, exceeding half a million pounds. The crowdfund has also been widely promoted by F1 drivers on social media.
It took an hour and a half for Monger to be extricated from his Mygale F4 car following the crash during the third of last weekend’s races. The 17-year-old ploughed unsighted into the stationary car of rival Patrik Pasma on the approach to McLeans corner.
The driver’s family said in a statement they “express their gratitude for the first-class medical attention given by Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham and take this opportunity to thank the medical teams, marshals, extrication crews and air ambulance staff for their skilled response and hard work.”
Monger was in his second season of single-seater racing after finishing fourth in the championship last season. He previously raced in Ginetta Juniors for two seasons. Among his rivals in the F4 championship this year is Hampus Ericsson, younger brother of Sauber F1 driver Marcus.
Contributions to the Billy Monger Crowdfund can be made here:
2017 F1 season
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- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
Willem Cecchi (@)
20th April 2017, 14:46
Great to see the motorsport community step up to the plate and help the guy out.
BasCB (@bascb)
20th April 2017, 14:50
Good to see the solidarity of thousands of fans as well as many high profile pundits, drivers, and team owners. I hope the kid can recover to make something out of his life, however hard that will be for him now.
Kie
20th April 2017, 14:51
+1
LosD (@losd)
20th April 2017, 15:07
Luckily, there’s now several race car drivers that race without usable legs, so if it’s “only” those, he should be able to do what he loves. Maybe even in a professional setting down the line.
That of course doesn’t diminish the horror of that terrible accident, or what he is facing now.
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
20th April 2017, 17:35
@bascb
I’m sorry, and I would add that I normally have the utmost respect for your remarks, but I think that’s a rather crass way of terming it. Yes, he has life-changing injuries, but this is not a salvage mission it’s young man’s life, and I think he can still expect to lead a full and meaningful life his injuries withstanding. People with disabilities both comparable and more profound continue to make invaluable contributions across the board. Indeed, if motor-racing persists as Billy’s passion, then it is a community that will be unquestionably enriched by disabled representation, as it has by Alex Zanardi’s inspiring return to the fold.
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
20th April 2017, 21:16
@william-brierty
I think @bascb didnt really realise the way he phrased it sounds crass (I agree it does). I bet English isn’t his first language so I would put it down to that.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st April 2017, 6:19
You know how it goes, you write something down quick, in the middle of doing something else, and you confirm before reading it again @william-brierty. As @pmccarthy_is_a_legend mentions, It was certainly not meant to read like that.
I certainly do not mean to say that he is somehow obliged to prove something, and I think that what he was already doing would have already made him achieve much more than many people out there. I just hope that he can recover and find a good way to cope with the situation and to live out his dreams despite the tragic accident that will change so many things in his life now.
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
21st April 2017, 8:20
@bascb I fully agree
Sravan Krishnan (@sravan-pe)
20th April 2017, 14:53
Relatively new to motorsports, having started watching F1 from 2015 onwards I have to say I’m unbelievably impressed with the way community has responded.
Ashwin (@redbullf1)
20th April 2017, 16:24
+1
Michael Brown (@)
20th April 2017, 15:06
The motorsport community always comes together in times like these, without fail. Makes me happy.
Marciare_o_Marcire (@marciare-o-marcire)
20th April 2017, 15:09
This is incredible. I hate social media with a passion, but I have to recognize that without social media this would never have been possible. I wish the best for Billy and I hope he continues racing even with this handicap.
Balue (@balue)
20th April 2017, 15:22
Very impressive this. Moving.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
20th April 2017, 16:00
Heartbreaking to say the least, unfortunately it breaks both his dreams and a part of his career, I wish him a full recovery from this accident.
JC
20th April 2017, 16:14
I’d encourage people to pressure JustGiving to not take their usual cut of this money. 63p in each £10!
On £510k they’re taking £32k of it for permitting people to donate money to the fund. I think that’s shocking compared to the likes of Virgin Giving and BT MyDonate.
Quite the earner, running a “charitable” giving web site …
Martin
20th April 2017, 16:27
Running a website, especially something like Just Giving that has to deal with money securely, is not free.
praxis (@praxis)
20th April 2017, 17:52
You do know that hosting a website of that size; along with payment options like those….costs quite a bit of money?
Unless big corporations like BT or Virgin Money decides to invest a tiny portion of their turnover for charitable causes.
JC
20th April 2017, 18:01
Yeah, they’re really struggling to make ends meet…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/07/justgiving-accused-taking-20m-donations-paying-staff-200000/
Yes it costs money for development, testing, hosting, traffic, PCI compliance etc… but they could take a lot less once over a certain threshold.
Martin
20th April 2017, 18:19
Seems straightforward to me. Would you rather they didn’t do that? Maybe they should not support causes that are predicted to not make back administration costs so they can reduce the cost to the more well backed ones? Is that what you want?
So they go backrupt? That is basically what you are asking for because if it is valid for them to give up their fee here surely it is valid every time? And so they should give up their fee every time, and go bankrupt.
JC
20th April 2017, 19:21
Not bankrupt, no, that’s a bit sensationalist.
They’re actively retweeting every big name who posts about it. You don’t see that for every day fundraising. The more they make it go viral, the more money they make (cynically). At least make a token gesture…
As for “charity training and support” surely that’s what the annual fees they charge the charities are for?
Martin
21st April 2017, 10:29
It’s not sensationalist it is exactly what you are arguing for. If you can’t see that then that is not my problem.
According to you he has raised far much more money because of them, why should they also give up their fee? And if they did why should they not then give up their fee for everyone? It is completely arbitrary for you to say in this case they should give up their fee and not on the countless other worthy causes they help fund.
Maciek (@maciek)
20th April 2017, 19:25
Indeed, they certainly could cap what they take past a certain level once costs are covered.
Hemz Shaw (@hemzshaw)
21st April 2017, 7:39
One thing is that you have a platform today, that makes it easier to seek and receive donations. The platform itself may not be charitable organization (I have not read too much into them), but if they are avoiding paying taxes then it is a different game.
Let me ask you this: if you were offered a full time job from one of these companies / charities that you like, however does not pay you enough to what you think. Unless you are financially secured, it will be difficult for you to accept it to be honest.
So I do not see people working hard for JustGiving may get a good to very good pay package. It is their way of keeping the best talent and the owner interested. So fair to them!
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
20th April 2017, 16:45
Gutted for the kid – moved by the people who contributed.
This kid is about to face the toughest races that any racer has had to face and the biggest competitor (himself) but I hope from the bottom of my heart that he enjoys many victory laps in life!
He doesn’t have to win trophies to be a champion in life – as long as he keeps his smile, he can accomplish anything!!!
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
20th April 2017, 17:22
I am truly proud, not only of the headline donators in Jenson Button and Max Verstappen, but of each and every donation and the warmth and solidarity of the motorsport community as a whole. A family who scrimped, saved and struggled to keep Billy racing, for who a second season in British F4 for Billy was testament of their efforts, needs support now more than ever. My best regards to Billy and his family.
Mach1 (@mach1)
20th April 2017, 18:13
The crash looked absolutely horrific. It looked like his visor nearly came off with the force ( I think it just flipped open).
From what I saw, it was still lap 1/2 with the field tightly bunched.
Did anyone see why/how the car in question (the one that got rear ended) came to such a dead stop so quickly?
It must have happened pretty quickly as from the feed, there were no yellows (double or otherwise) in sight.
Ratboy (@ratboy)
20th April 2017, 18:45
The other car was recovering after a spin.
a few cars spun/had contact on lap 1 T1 (Billy was involved in this) on lap 2 he was coming out of old hall and jinked to the right but there was the recovering Pasma and just had no where to go.
ITV were onboard Billys car at the time and it was awful to see it happen live.
Mach1 (@mach1)
20th April 2017, 18:59
Thanks @ratboy
I assume, as the field was so bunched, there was zero time for any yellows to come out….
Sounds like it is just a really unfortunate sequence of events.
Bradley Downton (@bradley13)
20th April 2017, 18:16
I do believe this has now been reported on BBC News and other media outlets too, but I was speaking to BTCC driver Tom Ingram at the test at Thruxton today – who along with Billy’s family and team helped set the crowdfund up – who said that Billy had been briefly woken from his coma and informed of the extent of his injuries. The first thing he then apparently said was to his team boss: “How do I operate the hand clutch?”
It’s so incredible to see that kind of mentality so soon after the accident and while he still has such a long recovery path to go, and I wish him absolutely all of the best in his recovery and future career, which he will undoubtedly have, and I look forward to seeing him return.
I’d also like to add – to all of the other comments here – how proud I am to be a motorsport fan. I genuinely think –
no scrap that, I know – we have the best fan base of any sport, and the way the entire motorsport community comes together in times like this is beyond phenomenal. We are the best kind of family.
alex
20th April 2017, 19:52
Yes he had a tragedy, but millions of people suffer in tragedy and nobody helps them, if u donate for him, first think in donate for less fortunate people, like the people that die everyday in Africa, or the people in your same city that don’t have place to live.
grumpy
21st April 2017, 2:15
Governments, corporations and private individuals donate millions in foreign aid every year, which is stolen, misappropriated and misspent by corrupt governments and organisations in these countries … hardly a fair criticism.
Juan Melendez (@juanmelendezr1)
20th April 2017, 20:23
Glad to see this young racer is recovering and has said he wants to race again, he can take example from Alex Zanardi who afront his injuries in a very positive fashion, and since then he has won many races and olympic medals.
Damon85
20th April 2017, 20:46
It does make me shake my head when you see all the drivers asking for the fans funding, what’s a million or two to these F1 drivers?
xcm
21st April 2017, 2:54
A million… it’s easy to spend other people’s money…
Evil Homer (@)
21st April 2017, 13:54
I did actually think if the F1 drivers or more so teams may chip in for this. As above Max and JB have donated but not sure on any others?
You would think some of the big teams could throw in 50k pounds or something to help.
Loetkoe
21st April 2017, 20:52
Williams Racing donated £10,000
Damon85
22nd April 2017, 6:08
Bit of loose change for them…..
Loetkoe
22nd April 2017, 8:12
According to this Max makes $3M (£2.34M) this year. If you are suggesting he should donate 4-6 month’s pay, maybe you could be an example and donate half your year’s pay first? As it stands, he donated 1/200 of his yearly pay which I think is perfectly in line with other donations. Even with Vettel’s salary a million would be about two weeks pay, maybe you could start with donating that?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd April 2017, 21:20
Pardon my cynicism, but I’ve seen enough random websites posting claimed F1 driver salaries in unbylined articles with no mention of how such incredibly sensitive information was obtained. I call ‘work of complete and utter fiction’ on this.
Nor do I think very much of singling people out and complaining they should have donated more money.