23/11/2024
NEWS STORY
Franco Colapinto will need to undergo a medical evaluation in order to establish whether he is able to contest tomorrow's Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Argentine crashed heavily during today's qualifying session just weeks after crashing out of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
"Franco sustained a significant impact of over 50G, requiring a medical check-up," said the Grove outfit in a brief statement. "An impact of this magnitude is obviously significant and severe and he will need to be evaluated again tomorrow before we will know whether he is clear to race.
"Franco's health is all that matters and we are glad he is otherwise okay. We will provide further updates when we can."
The crash, which caused considerable damage to his car, comes at a time team boss James Vowles has revealed that incidents over the Mexican and Sao Paulo weekends led to a repair bill in excess of $3 million.
"Five front wings, five floors, five rear wings, three gearboxes, two engines, two chassis. An amount that you just can't believe," admitted Vowles yesterday.
"We have sufficient parts for the two cars here and there are a selection of spares around as well," he added warning that the situation could affect the team going into next season. "We're at a point now where, at the last three races of the year, if I produce, for example, five front wings, that's 2025 I'm compromising as a result, so we have to balance between the two.
"If we have accidents like Brazil we are going to be in dire trouble, but hopefully that's a one off."
Check out our qualifying gallery from Las Vegas here.