Formula E drivers react to horrifying Wehrlein airborne crash

Several Formula E drivers reacted to Pascal Wehrlein’s huge airborne crash in the São Paulo season-opener, with one driver having felt “sick”.

The reigning world champion and last season’s title rival Nick Cassidy made contact on the exit of Turn 6, causing Wehrlein’s car to roll over and make heavy contact with the wall. 

Thankfully, the halo device again came to the rescue, with the German driver escaping unharmed. He was sent to hospital for precautionary checks before soon being discharged. 

It was a type of accident very rarely seen in FE, and which triggered a lengthy red flag. “Stop, stop, stop,” shouted an upside-down Wehrlein on the team radio. “Red flag! Red flag! Red flag! Send someone quickly, please.”

A red flag quickly followed, with several drivers radioing their concerns. Cassidy was one of the first. “I’m worried about Pascal. Is he okay?” the Jaguar driver asked.

“Red flag! Red flag! This is terrible! Red flag! Immediately!,” urged DS Penske’s Maximilian Günther. “Immediately guys. There is a car flipped upside down!”

It was a crash which again reminded fans how dangerous motorsport can be, with Cassidy seeing Wehrlein flip over directly in front of him.

“I mean, [I] just feel sick seeing a crash that big,” Cassidy told RacingNews365. “Really sorry to see that outcome. 

“I don’t even really want to go into explaining the corner before or what happened there, just from a human aspect that’s never nice to see.”

‘Flash of purple’

For race winner Mitch Evans, he was ahead of the incident when it unfolded. For him, it all played out in his wing mirrors. 

Evans only saw a “flash of purple” upside down, but needed clarification from his race engineer who informed him of what had happened.

“I looked in the mirror and I saw a purple… I guess it was a car, but I just saw a flash of purple, clearly not the right way around,” Evans explained to RacingNews365. 

“But I wasn’t really sure if it was something I saw, because in the mirror it’s so hard to see what’s going on. So I wasn’t surprised when I heard that he had flipped. I’m not sure what happened. 

“Obviously, it was between him and Nick. But just good to see that he walked away.”

One driver who had a frightening view of Wehrlein’s crash was Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara, who was one of the first drivers to go past the accident. 

Remarkably, the Swiss driver was initially concerned the airborne Porsche would land on top of his car before his attention turned to Wehrlein’s condition.

“Firstly, I was trying to avoid him because I saw him fly upside down, and I was kind of afraid he was going to land on my car because I was the next one [to go past],” Mortara told RacingNews365. 

“Effectively, I was just behind. And then, obviously, you’re thinking straight after avoiding him, ‘Oh gosh!’

“That was a big one. I really hope he’s feeling fine because usually these crashes, these big, big crashes, they don’t happen that often.”