What had been a very clean Indianapolis 500 in its first week led to a very bumpy second week in which nine different drivers ended up on the wall, all of them with solo accidents. None of them seemed to suffer more than a little discomfort from impacts at more than 300 kilometers per hour, but one of the six accidents on race day has led to Callum Ilott’s medical leave for the next Detroit Grand Prix.
The British driver, who competes for Juncos Hollinger Racing as a rookie, suffered his second Indy 500 crash on lap 69 of the race. Despite executing the protocol of letting go of the steering wheel before impact, his right hand slipped out of his control and hit the steering column, causing a fracture. Although initially it seemed to have had a minor effect, subsequent evaluations this week have advised against Ilott’s participation in the semi-urban circuit of Belle Isle, known for its many potholes and his physical toughness in cars without power steering.
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“After speaking with the doctors and specialists in Indianapolis, the damage to the hand was somewhat greater than we presumed», comments Ilott, whose eighth place at the Indianapolis Grand Prix is his best result in his nine IndyCar races to date. “They suggested that long-term healing was the top priority, and that any short-term damage could be a bigger problem in the future. After knowing this, we agreed with the medical team not to be discharged and spend more time resting.
With very little margin ahead of this event, the team of Argentine Ricardo Juncos has advocated for a pilot familiar with this situation as Santino Ferucci. The 23-year-old American this year replaced Jack Harvey in the 375 miles of Texas after the Briton suffered a concussion in an accident, and rallied in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car to ninth after starting 27th and last. At the same time, his IndyCar debut came at Belle Isle in 2018 in a situation of similar difficulty, without having done a single previous test in a Dallara IR18.
This will be the third race and the third different team that Ferrucci competes with this year, a week after another notable Indianapolis 500 performance in the #23 Dreyer & Reinbold car in which he finished 10th. The former Formula 2 driver has earned a solid reputation on the ovalswith nine top-10 finishes in his 13 races on this terrain, including his best finish of fourth place up to four times, and a full finish in all four of his Indy 500s. ), his last three races at Detroit have resulted in three top-10 finishesincluding a sixth place in the first round of 2021.
After running out of a seat at the end of 2020 at Dale Coyne Racing, Ferrucci has competed part-time in IndyCar, contesting five races in 2021 in a third car for the Rahal team for which he was ruled out this year in favor of Dane Christian Lundgaard. His situation is similar to what Oliver Askew experienced last year, Andretti’s current driver in the Formula E World Championship, and who acted as an injury substitute in two different races for Carpenter and McLaren SP before driving the last three races at Rahal. In a similar way, Conor Daly also drove for three different teams in 2019.
Photos: IndyCar Media