Severe crash WEC Spa

[Appie Kuipers]

Fittipaldi crashed severe at the WEC spa practise. News is he broke his legs. Pffffff bad news.

 

[Joseph Wright]

Pietro Fittipaldi has been taken to hospital with suspected broken legs after his accident at Eau Rouge in qualifying for the World Endurance Championship opener at Spa.

A statement from the WEC said that the DragonSpeed LMP1 driver, the grandson of Emerson Fittipaldi, has been helicoptered to hospital in Liege with "suspected fractures to both legs".

It said that 21-year-old Fittipaldi remained conscious throughout his extraction from the DragonSpeed BR Engineering-Gibson BR1 and that his injuries were not life-threatening.

The Brazilian crashed at Eau Rouge on his second flying lap and hit the barrier head-on.

The accident caused a 30-minute delay to the qualifying session.

Fittipaldi was making his WEC debut this weekend, standing in for Renger van der Zande at DragonSpeed.

He is also contesting part-seasons in IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing and Super Formula with Team LeMans, and was due to make his Indianapolis 500 debut later this month as part of his American programme.

Source: https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/135795/fittipaldi-breaks-both-legs-in-spa-wec-crash

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

What I've picked up is this "Pietro Fittipaldi broke both his legs, the right one in particular is worrying, with multiple fractures" If that's the correct situation, it's not good, and I really don't like "worrying".

 

[Jan Larsen]

Its a hard hit for sure, but i'm curious as to how he managed to break them when the tub looks fine. I'm suspecting a penetration into the cockpit from the suspension.

 

[Trebor901]

not necessarily a penetration into the cockpit it could depend where he had his feet at the time if he had one hard on the brake then the force of the front impact could easily break your leg even without any damage to the tub

 

[HDrury42]

Unfortunately most outlets have jumped to “both legs are broken”, when it appears nothing has been confirmed since he was airlifted with “suspected fractures”.

 

[Turk]

Its a hard hit for sure, but i'm curious as to how he managed to break them when the tub looks fine. I'm suspecting a penetration into the cockpit from the suspension.

You dont need penetration to do all kinds of damage even braking a bone. Even most road cars can maintain the structural integraty of the cabin in a head on collision at 70mph. the bag of goo that is the human body will damage itself just flopping around inside the car. I'm not at all worried about his broken leg, the fact he didnt wake up is the real concern. The brain bounces around inside the skull during crashes like that.

 

[Joseph Wright]

You dont need penetration to do all kinds of damage even braking a bone. Even most road cars can maintain the structural integraty of the cabin in a head on collision at 70mph. the bag of goo that is the human body will damage itself just flopping around inside the car. I'm not at all worried about his broken leg, the fact he didnt wake up is the real concern. The brain bounces around inside the skull during crashes like that.

It said that 21-year-old Fittipaldi remained conscious throughout his extraction from the DragonSpeed BR Engineering-Gibson BR1 and that his injuries were not life-threatening.

 

[Jan Larsen]

I was correct...ish. The wheel got pushed into the cockpit, even bend the A frame, and thus broke his legs. I'm actually surprised the tub held up to it the way it did, the speed and impact was enormous.

 

[Mike Sterckx]

 

[Daniel R.]

Honestly, a steering system intruding the cockpit is not well designed.
On a road car it's the first priority to not have that to happen!
It should be even more in a race car.