Julien Delfosse/DPPI/Shutterstock
Edoardo Mortara’s car is hijacked after the accident at the Formula E race in Rome.
CNN –
High-speed racing is used to high-speed collisions, it’s the nature of the sport.
But we have seldom experienced such a dramatic accident as on Saturday at the first double race of Formula E in Rome.
At turn six of the ninth lap, Jaguar driver Sam Bird, who was leading the race at the time, appeared to lose control of the rear of his car before colliding with the guard rail and sending his car tumbling into the middle of the track.
As it turned out, this was particularly bad luck for Bird, who couldn’t move in the middle of the track on a blind corner where the cars are traveling at extremely high speeds. 2016/17 Formula E driver champion Lucas di Grassi later described the corner as “probably the most dangerous on this track”.
Immediately afterwards, several cars made light contact with Bird’s car, most notably Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi, who hit the rear of the Jaguar car, throwing Buemi up at an angle and against the wall before landing back on the ground.
While other drivers narrowly avoided a serious collision despite contact nonetheless, the same could not be said of Maserati MSG Racing’s Edoardo Mortara, who ran straight into the side of Bird’s car.
The race was immediately stopped with the red flag and postponed by 45 minutes. A total of six drivers were unable to continue the race on Saturday due to their involvement in the accident.
The frustration of the drivers involved was clearly audible, especially at Buemi.
“For heaven’s sake! When will this happiness finally end? For heaven’s sake! What the hell is that?” Buemi could be heard saying to his team over his radio.
“Guys, I’m so sorry, but there was nothing I could do.”
Guiseppe Lami/EPO-EFE/Shutterstock
Bird car after the high speed crash.
Luckily none of the drivers suffered serious injuries and all managed to escape.
One of the riders whose race ended early, di Grassi, expressed relief at being able to escape unharmed.
“I’m very happy that all the drivers are safe,” said di Grassi. “I had no physical problems and the car had only minor damage compared to what could have been. In a way we were lucky today that nothing worse happened.”
“Thanks to the safety requirements of the FIA and Formula E, not only for the car but also for the track – although this corner is probably the most dangerous at this circuit. It’s a very fast blind corner and we’re racing and there’s no place to run. You can see more on a straight line. In a corner like this, it’s very difficult to judge whether the track is completely blocked or not. Ultimately the safety of the drivers was because the car was very strong and the track was well constructed.”
Since a race was already being held the next day, many teams worked until the early hours to repair their cars. Formula E presenter Saunders Carmichael-Brown reported that it came after “one of the biggest, if not the biggest, incidents we’ve seen at the track in Formula E history” that it was a “massive community effort ‘ from almost a third of the paddock.
“A community initiative to share parts and ensure we can get as many cars on track as possible [on Sunday]’ said Carmichael Brown.
Amazingly, all the drivers involved in the collision made it out onto the track for the second race of the double header: Bird was third, Buemi fourth and Mortara fifth.