Juan Manuel Correa: "I have to return for Anthoine"
F1 News
Juan Manuel Correa says that he is determined to return for racing, not just for himself but also for Anthoine Hubert, who was killed in the terrible crash at Spa-Francorchamps in August. Correa has suffered serious injuries to his leg and was in an induced coma, before recovering enough to return home recently.
Correa scored two podiums during his first season of Formula 2 in 2019, in Azerbaijan and France, and tested for Alfa Romeo's F1 team mid-season.
Despite facing a lengthy period of time watching on, the Ecuadorian born American says he is determind to return for his friend Hubert.
Correa told Mundo Sport: “It took me a few weeks to accept everything, it is difficult to understand with pain drugs in the hospital. It took me time to accept it, but my attitude is pragmatic, nothing will change what happened, so I have to make the best of it.
"Of course I feel sadness, Anthoine was a good friend, but now I feel that I have to return not only for myself but also for him.
“It was an accident that changed my life, not only physically but mentally. When you have an experience so close to death and you go out alive, your eyes open beyond motor racing. There were moments in the hospital where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to race again.
"I realised that racing is not the most important thing, it is my passion, but such an accident shows you the priorities, and my priority was my health and my family. Leaving that hole I had time to reflect. My passion is still racing. A friend asked me if this turns off my F1 dream. I told him that an accident does not turn off the dream, it does make you think if you want to take a risk for a dream. And I decided that I want to continue doing so because it is my dream.”