When Felipe Massa nearly died after losing consciousness at a speed of 250 km/hr during the Hungarian Grand Prix

Janmeyjay Shukla | 27/07/2022
When Felipe Massa nearly died after losing consciousness at a speed of 250 km/hr during the Hungarian Grand Prix

Felipe Massa crashed out after a 1kg spring from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP car hit one inch above his left eye.

Felipe Massa had a near-death experience at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009. He was rushed to the Budapest hospital after a strange incident with Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello.

Going into the qualifying, Red bull and Renault had the higher ground with Fernando Alonso taking the pole ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

However, at the ending laps of the qualifying, Massa met with a serious incident. A spring from Barrichello’s BGO001 detached and hit Massa just one inch above his left eye.

Also Read: Former F1 Champion questions 24-year-old Charles Leclerc for making multiple mistakes

Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP spring hits Felipe Massa

This was a horrific incident as Massa was already driving at a speed of well over 250km/hr. The black spring bounced on the track surface and hit Massa knocking him unconscious.

The Ferrari driver had his feet on the accelerator and on the accelerator pedal as well. Thus, he ran straight to the tire barrier at 0.6 and 1.4g force.

The car hit the tire barrier and the engine was still revving while the Brazilian was in the car. He was airlifted out of the circuit straight to the hospital and was out of the remaining races of the 2009 season.

The Former Ferrari driver talks about this horrific incident

Speaking about the incident, Massa explained that the spring weigh between 900grams-1kg and hit him at a speed of 250km/hr. He lost his bone area above the left eye.

The Brazilian explained: “I went to the hospital. They made quite an intense operation. I flew back to Brazil, and they did another big operation a month after [the crash]. They put like a plate, here [Massa points to above his left eye], because I lost all the bone on this area.”

Massa described his return, stating: “It took really a long time to get back to the car. You always know you want to go back to racing, but you never believe something will happen to you. When it happens to you, you just respect the life of yourself and also everybody in a big way.”

Also Read: When Lewis Hamilton kept his promise to Valtteri Bottas at the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix

Post Edited By: Samriddhi Jaiswal
Felipe Massa Hungary Rubens Barrichello

About the author

Janmeyjay Shukla

Janmeyjay Shukla is an artist who contributes his expressions through words as an F1 writer and editor at The SportsRush. He is an F1 historian who has been watching the sport since he was a baby. Passed on from generation to generation, he has seen the prime of Michael Schumacher to the rise of Max Verstappen. A Mercedes fan from the days of the Brawn GP era, the sport runs in his blood. Besides Formula One, Janmeyjay is a Marketing Head and a musician who loves to sing and play Rock & Pop songs on guitar. His love for sports will never die as he is a loyal Liverpool Football Club fan as well!

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