Junior Formula Racing

[Matt]

Chadwick did not win the second W Series race, but rather that win went to Beitske Visser.

[Chrill]

True, but Chadwick was 2nd. And also, she is now a Williams development driver.

I cannot find any information as to how many super license points a win in the W series will grant the driver, but hopefully a win here can propel Chadwick to F2 for 2020. A decent season there, and we may see her partake in at least some FP1s next season.

[Penfold]

Found this statement lurking in an article on Reuters:  "W Series chief executive Catherine Bond-Muir said the governing FIA would consider at the end of the season whether to award licence points and how many."

[Penfold]

Pato O'Ward has joined the Red Bull junior program: https://racer.com/2019/05/09/oward-joins-red-bull-junior-team/

Interested to see what Red Bull's goal is here. Is it F1? Is it a renewed presence in IndyCar? Will they force him over to F2?

O'Ward is doing a one-off F2 race in Austria this weekend, but it seems he might then take Dan Ticktum's Super Formula seat for the remainder of 2019: http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/144407?_ga=2.213578836.1757734155.1561024889-351333530.1543528994

[Matt]

That seems like what is going to happen. He has budget issues for IndyCar anyway, so might he be finished here? I haven't looked to see what the schedule clashes are between Indy and Super Formula.

[Penfold]

Next two Super Formula races clash with Indy (14th July & 18th August) so a tad tricky to run in both series.

[Chrill]

Red Bull won't fund an IndyCar seat for Pato, he'll replace Ticktum in Super Formula for 2019 and maybe go for a seat in F2 for 2020 (although Red Bull prefer Super Formula to F2). In 2021, O'Ward will be in F1 assuming he performs in whatever series Red Bull place him.

[Chrill]

Antoine Hubert, Renault junior driver, has died following a high speed crash in the F2 race today. Correa, the driver who collided with him, remains in hospital in a stable condition with no word on his injuries yet.

https://www.fia.com/news/statement-incident-during-fia-formula-2-feature-race-spa-francorchamps

Horrible news, and the videos from the crash are genuinely frightening to watch. Awful.

I hope Correa can make a swift recovery, but at this point words don't yelp much. Deaths at this level of motorsport is rare, and become rarer as time goes by.

[Matt]

Correa has fractures to both legs and a "minor" spinal injury. The use of "minor" indicates to me that it's just a fracture somewhere in his spine, which while serious, isn't that uncommon for drivers.

[Chrill]

Latest update on Correa:

After 4 hours surgery, JM has started his recovery. He will be in intensive care until tomorrow. His family, considering the sadness of the tragic event, is thankful to all the fans who are sending messages. When his conditions will be more stable, JM will be transferred to USA https://t.co/1eqj5hDfSy

[Penfold]

There were complications in Correa's recovery and they've had to put him into an induced coma and on life support: https://www.racefans.net/2019/09/07/correa-suffered-new-complications-in-recovery-says-family/

[Penfold]

F3 driver Alex Peroni fortunately unhurt after a brief flying incident caused by striking the sausage kerb plonked at the exit of Parabolica - and it seems like such a sensible place to site a large lump of concrete: https://www.racefans.net/2019/09/07/f3-driver-unhurt-after-being-launched-onto-barrier-in-horror-crash-at-parabolica/

[Matt]

Not actually unhurt, he has a fracture in his back and will miss the final round.

[Penfold]

Yeah, I saw that he didn't actually emerge unscathed.  Still, the end result could've certainly been worse given the dramatic nature of his crash.

[Chrill]

JM Correa remains in an induced coma, which is very worrisome. He was put into a medically induced coma a week ago, and no updates have been released since.