Romain Grosjean has questioned the safety of sausage kerbs at race tracks after Sophia Floersch fractured her spine when she went airborne at the Macau Grand Prix.
17-year-old Floersch suffered a horrific crash during the iconic Formula 3 race when she mounted the kerb at Lisboa during a restart accident.
She was sent flying into the air, over the back of a rival’s car, before crashing into an elevated photographers’ bunker.
Sophia Floersch was lucky to survive this horrifying crash at the F3 Macau GP pic.twitter.com/FoFuKDwngn
— The Sporting Base (@thesportingbase) November 18, 2018
She underwent an 11-hour surgery in Macau with her Van Amersfoort Racing team boss Frits van Amersfoort revealing that there is “no fear of paralysis whatsoever.”
Grosjean, who races for Haas, feels her crash calls into question the safety of sausage kerbs to police track limits.
“I believe Sophia was very lucky to escape,” GPDA director Grosjean said at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“The news [of her surgery] is very encouraging, which is great. It’s lucky that the guy who was on the apex didn’t get hit.
“But the sausage kerb didn’t really do any favour to that shunt.
“Tracks should have grass or gravel. Obviously you can’t in a city but most of the time we talk about track limits if there was gravel or grass there would be no more discussions.
“The sausage kerb in Spa, Monza, a few places, it just doesn’t fit and isn’t right.
“We have already discussed it in the [GPDA] WhatsApp group.
“It’s very similar to Belgium GP3 a few years ago [Konstantin Tereshchenko was sent airborne at the Bus Stop chicane], the sausage kerb on the inside has just launched the car.
“I raced in Macau three times and I remember that corner. I don’t know why there’s a sausage kerb there, to be fair.
“There’s no need, there’s a wall. So if you cut the corner you’re in the wall. A flat kerb was a good idea.
“Monza Turn 1, if anything wrong happens in Formula 1 and you get the sausage kerb you end up in the centre of Milan.”
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