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Ericsson on the biggest crash of his career

Ericsson on "the biggest crash" of his career

05-09-2018 14:00

Marcus Ericsson suffered a spectacular but scary crash during FP2 for last week’s Italian Grand Prix when his DRS failed to close, sending him into a spin and a wall at Monza.

His Sauber was then pitched into several barrel rolls before coming to rest at the run off area of turn one. The session was red flagged for around 20 minutes whilst the wreckage was cleared.

Fortunately, Ericsson walked away without injury and was able to recover to compete in the rest of the weekend, although he qualified down in 19th and finished the race way off the points, in P15, only ahead of Kevin Magnussen of those who saw the chequered flag.

The Swedish driver had now revealed the extent of the crash, saying that experienced force of up to 25G. Normally in F1, drivers only reach 5G when racing.

Ericsson said: “I just touched the brakes and suddenly the car just spins in that speed and then it starts rolling and flying around, all while that was happening I had no idea was going on!

“I was like ‘why is this happening?’ when it stopped… in the end it was good there was nothing worse than that.

“I was quite happy it was not a wall in the end because I think it was good I kept rolling until the speed was down.

“But I think it was three impacts that were more than 25Gs, rolling and flying through the air, was going on for quite a while and you get a bit shaken up definitely.”

Ericsson continued, saying that after the crash he wanted to get back in the car to get the accident out of his system and get back into the flow of driving the car again.

He added: “I think the thing for me when you have a big crash, this was the biggest one in my career, but from the past when you have a big crash, I always prefer to be in the car as soon as possible after it else you think a bit more about it, what happened, things that happened.

 “If you’re able to jump in the car the next day then you get into it and after a few laps okay you’re back to it, get the feeling again, start trusting the car, and then you sort of forget about it and move on.

“For me it was perfect to be able to be in the car again and like I said it took a few laps in FP3 just to build yourself up a bit but come qualifying I was right on it.”