Juan Manuel Correa, Sauber by Charouz, Spa-Francorchamps, 2019

Correa explains why he couldn’t avoid Hubert’s car in Spa crash

Formula 2

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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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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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20 comments on “Correa explains why he couldn’t avoid Hubert’s car in Spa crash”

  1. “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.”

    Great attitude, Correa. Keep at it :)

  2. 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.

    1. Overcoming Survivours guilt is always the biggest hurdle in rehab. Hopefully he recovers soon.

  3. 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

    1. 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

    2. 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.

      1. It won’t grow necessarily 6cm, it could be 2 gaps with 3 cm each, or 3 gaps with 2 cm each

        Still impressive

    3. 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.

  4. 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.

    1. 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

      1. 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.

    2. @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.

      1. Biela had his front wheels locked trying to slow down when he crashed into Kieth

        1. @johnmilk Yes, because he tried to go down from full speed to standstill in the last 10 meters!

      2. 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

    3. Oh wow, another brilliant race driver on a comment session.

    4. how much time have you spent behind the wheel of a race car exactly?

    5. @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.

  5. 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?

  6. 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.

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