Juan Manuel Correa has revealed new details of the Formula 2 crash at Spa-Francorchamps in August which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert.
The pair collided at the exit of Raidillon after Hubert’s car struck a barrier on the outside of the corner on lap two of the feature race. The collision happened moments after Giuliano Alesi’s car had gone off at the same corner.Correa explained in an interview with Mundo Sport that his car was struck by debris from Alesi’s before he hit Hubert’s car.
“When I went past Eau Rouge I stepped on debris from Alesi’s car that got under the front wheels, lifted them so I went straight, with the bad luck that I went straight into Hubert’s car,” he said.
He has contributed to the FIA’s forthcoming report into the cause of the crash. “It’s all clear,” he said, “I had meetings with the FIA, it was an accident with very bad luck, a long chain of events where four or five cars were involved.
“What I told about what I experienced coincides with the FIA report. But it’s over, no investigation is going to change the fact that I have a hard year ahead.”
According to Correa the force of the impact was measured at 70G. He suffered serious injuries to his right leg and his rehabilitation is expected to take over a year.
“Unfortunately, it is most likely [I will] never make a full recovery in my leg,” he said. “But I will fight to recover it enough to step on the throttle again.”
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
21st November 2019, 14:30
Great attitude, Correa. Keep at it :)
Hugh (@hugh11)
21st November 2019, 14:33
It’s good that he knows that it wasn’t his fault and there was nothing he can do, a lot of people in his situation would blame themselves, survivors guilt etc.
Chaitanya
21st November 2019, 17:16
Overcoming Survivours guilt is always the biggest hurdle in rehab. Hopefully he recovers soon.
Joao (@johnmilk)
21st November 2019, 14:38
if anyone is curious, what he has on his leg is a bone fragment stabilization device, basically keeps the ramaing viable bone fragments in place so that they can heal and regenerate new bone tissue, eventually closing the gap between the spaces that were removed or destroyed.
Correa lost 6cm of bone in the accident
Fun fact, the device is used to help people grow a few centimeters, if they are subconscious about it. A proceedure that if I’m not mistake is forbidden in Europe
kpcart
21st November 2019, 15:02
Kubica made it back to F1, so correa can also make it back. Kubica had prosphetics put in his elbow at one time in his rehabilitation. For correa, if he can’t regain full control of foot he could drive left foot for throttle and brake with hand controls, or brake with foot and hand controls for throttle, or left foot for brakes and throttle. He will get there
Bill
21st November 2019, 18:17
Crazy! I don’t know how bone can grow that far together. That is quite a distance. Good luck to him on the physical and mental side of his recovery.
Joao (@johnmilk)
21st November 2019, 20:56
It won’t grow necessarily 6cm, it could be 2 gaps with 3 cm each, or 3 gaps with 2 cm each
Still impressive
Gary barbati
24th November 2019, 19:27
Yup. Had one on my right leg after motorcycle accident. Definitely was a year of rehab, but am walking close to normal now. Best of luck to Correa.
DAllein (@)
21st November 2019, 16:38
And that’s why you kept pressing throttle down – the most logical thing you do when something is stuck under your front wheels, you try to ride over this something, right?
Guess he just forgot to say that.
OOliver
21st November 2019, 16:51
This kind of accident happens too fast for drivers to even be aware they are in one. He would not have seen the other car until the very last second
Steve Clark
21st November 2019, 21:03
Yes, it happens very fast. I raced shifter karts for a few years. You get used to the speed. It’s only when you lose it or someone in front drops it and you are closing on them that you are reminded how quick you are actually going.
F1oSaurus (@)
21st November 2019, 21:01
@dallein I know right.
I remember an accident in the DTM. A car spins and the cars behind just keep their foot down. So, Frank Biela (championship leader) ends up plowing almost full speed into the side of the spinning car. Forgot the name of the driver he hit, but he did not survive. I was shocked. I could not understand how they would just keep going full speed when a car was spinning right ahead of them.
I get that the drivers want to score as many points as they can, but come on, you see cars flying left and right ahead, the only thing to do would be to lift. Especially if you went off track already.
You know there is going to be a safety car or red flag even. What’s the point of putting people’s lives at extreme risk like that. Or as Correa demonstrated, even his own health.
Joao (@johnmilk)
21st November 2019, 23:42
Biela had his front wheels locked trying to slow down when he crashed into Kieth
F1oSaurus (@)
22nd November 2019, 17:32
@johnmilk Yes, because he tried to go down from full speed to standstill in the last 10 meters!
Man United_Vettel (@siegfreyco)
22nd November 2019, 11:57
Which is why I find it weird when Ferruci gets praised for gaining several positions when there was a crash ahead of him in 300kmh+ ovals. It’s not worth risking a crash that could kill a person just to gain those positions
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
22nd November 2019, 4:55
Oh wow, another brilliant race driver on a comment session.
Chuck
22nd November 2019, 6:12
how much time have you spent behind the wheel of a race car exactly?
TFLB (@tflb)
22nd November 2019, 14:00
@dallein I was wondering when you’d turn up with an ill-informed comment. Do you have any ‘insider’ knowledge of the incident or are you just being a disrespectful know-it-all? I’d strongly suspect the latter.
As far as I could see Correa was trying to slow down, but it’s hard with only two wheels on the ground. Plus, have you ever driven Spa? If not you probably don’t realise how blind it all is, and everything at Radillon happens so fast.
Sumedh
22nd November 2019, 10:32
There was a very good video on youtuve explaining the entire accident. Based on that, I thought it was clear that Correa had a puncture and hence, had difficulty slowing down.
Is that not correct?
Racing dave
23rd November 2019, 20:02
If you think he still had his foot in once he had the wing under his front wheels you are deluded. One can only imagine having no control at those speeds without all the cars spinning and swerving would be pretty terrifying – a slowmo think I’m going to die kind of thing.
If you have some telemetry to change my mind feel free to post it.