Macau Grand Prix | F1 drivers association says Flörsch crash raises concerns about ‘sausage’ kerbs

Sophia Flörsch goes over Japanese driver Sho Tsuboi’s car

The Formula 1’s Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) will discuss teenage driver Sophia Flörsch’s Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 accident with the FIA. GPDA director Romain Grosjean said that the crash in Macau exacerbated concerns about ‘sausage’ kerbs.

Flörsch suffered spinal fractures after her mono-seat collided at high speed with Japanese driver Sho Tsuboi’s car, going through a catch fence at the Lisboa bend. The car then hit a photographers’ bunker on the perimeter and dropped to the ground, with race marshals immediately on the scene.

“I believe Sophia was very lucky to escape,” Grosjean told Autosport. “The news [from 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 favors 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,” he said.

Romain Grosjean, who drives for the Haas team, said GPDA members “probably will raise” Florsch’s crash with FIA race director Charlie Whiting. According to him, the crash in Macau has resemblances with the one suffered by Konstantin Tereshchenko in a GP3 practice session at Spa four years ago, when the Russian was launched over the kerbs at the Bus Stop chicane.

“It’s very similar to the Belgium GP3 a few years ago – 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,” Grosjean said, adding an example: “Monza Turn 1, if anything wrong happens in Formula 1 and you get the sausage kerb, you end up in the center of Milan.”