Pascal Wehrlein pays tribute to Halo after terrifying?wall?smash caused ‘difficulty in breathing’

Pascal Wehrlein escaped serious injury in a horrifying crash at last month’s Sao Paulo E-Prix, when he got flipped upside down into a wall.

Wehrlein, who races for Porsche in Formula E nowadays, hit his head against a concrete wall during his scary crash in last month’s Formula E race in Brazil.

Pascal Wehrlein reveals scary aftermath of Brazil crash

Wehrlein, a former star of Mercedes‘ junior programme en route to the DTM title and a reserve role with the F1 team, was involved in a crash during last month’s Sao Paulo E-Prix.

Battling with Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy, Wehrlein dived up the inside of the Kiwi into a tight left-hander before attempting to stick around the outside through the following right-hander.

But, with Cassidy having picked up damage from contact with Penske’s Max Gunther, Cassidy and Wehrlein made contact – resulting in the German driver being flipped onto his side and sent flying through the air.

His Porsche had a heavy impact with the wall, with the top of the car bouncing off the concrete before sliding down the track completely upside down.

Dangling upside down for some time after the impact, Wehrlein was able to extricate himself before being tended to by medical crews.

While precautionary medical checks cleared him, Wehrlein did not attend the FIA Prize-Giving Gala in order to give himself more recovery time after receiving orders from his doctor.

On Formula E’s coverage of first practice for the Mexico City E-Prix, Wehrlein revealed some extraordinary extra details about his crash as he explained that his helmet had actually impacted against the wall.

“Yeah, it was a nasty crash,” he confirmed.

“Luckily, we have the Halo nowadays. I escaped with, let’s say, small injuries – nothing serious – and, with a bit of time since the last race, I had the chance to properly recover and I’m happy to be back.”

Explaining the incident to Formula E and F1 broadcaster Karun Chandhok, Wehrlein said more serious symptoms of injury became apparent while he was en route back to Europe.

“So so, I have to say,” he said of how he felt immediately after the impact.

“I went back to hospital when I arrived home. I got quite a lot of pain while breathing while on the plane, a lot of headaches, and a bit of dizziness, so I just wanted to get checked again.

“The scary thing about this one was, first of all that I hit my head on the wall,” Wehrlein revealed.

“The Halo got quite damaged, and actually, on one side, it was out of the monocoque.

“So the Halo moved a lot, which made my head hit the wall. And the other thing was that I was upside down, and I couldn’t get out of the car. Physically, I was feeling fine in that moment.

“With all the adrenaline in your body, you don’t feel the pain yet but, also, you want to get out of the car if you see sparks flying and so on.”

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Formula E introduced the FIA-mandated Halo device for Gen2, shortly after its introduction in Formula 1, and Wehrlein said it was clear the cockpit protection device had played a key role in protecting him from further harm – even in a crash that, by comparison to others, took place at low speeds.

“We all know that racing is dangerous and it can be dangerous, but we also know that the cars are quite safe nowadays, which is great,” the former Manor and Sauber F1 racer explained.

“But yeah, obviously, I think there’s quite a lot to learn about this situation because it was not huge speeds.

“We were doing like 80-90 kph through that corner. The same incident with higher speeds would have been quite different. So I’m sure that there’s stuff to improve in the future.”

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