A doctor who attended to Juan Manuel Correa following his crash at Spa-Francorchamps last year has responded to his claim he was ignored by the FIA in the days afterwards.

The crash, on Saturday during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, claimed the life of Correa’s Formula 2 rival Anthoine Hubert. Correa spent three weeks in an induced coma, regained consciousness, but now faces a long wait to discover whether the extensive injuries to his right foot will fully heal

In an interview with German television NTV earlier this week, Correa described the seriousness of his condition after the crash and suggested it had been overlooked by the sport’s governing body in the days that followed.

“The day after the accident everybody travelled to Monza,” said Correa, “but I stayed in hospital and almost died four days after the accident. Nobody from the FIA or elsewhere was concerned about me.”

“The reason I almost died was because of the enormous G forces that could only result from an accident of that severity,” he added. “The doctors in the hospital in Belgium did not know what [the symptoms] were because they had never seen anybody who had survived such heavy forces.”

The chief medical officer at Spa, doctor Christian Wahlen, described the care Correa received immediately following the crash to RaceFans.

“Juan Manuel Correa received immediate medical attention at the scene of the accident, administered by the circuit-appointed doctor who is an experienced anaesthetist,” said Wahlen.

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“The activities of medical staff attending the accident were coordinated by FIA deputy F1 medical delegate and F1 rescue coordinator doctor Ian Roberts. Juan Manuel received continuous care as he was transported by ambulance to the track medical centre. On arrival he was stabilised by the trauma team, who are under my responsibility as chief medical officer for this grand prix.

“After consulting with doctor Alain Chantegret, FIA F1 medical delegate, it was clear from the nature of his injuries that Juan Manuel needed to be transferred immediately by helicopter to the care of the Center Hospitalier Universitaire Liège (CHU Liège) to receive more specialist medical and operative care.”

Wahlen, a general surgeon, has been the chief medical officer at Spa since 1985 and a member of the FIA’s medical commission for 25 years. He said he and FIA institute president Gérard Saillant updated Correa’s family on developments in his condition in the days that followed.

“In my role as chief medical officer and as an FIA medical delegate, I remained in constant contact with the hospital and also visited Juan Manuel on Monday 2nd September, where he was recovering well from the surgery to his feet,” said Wahlen. “That same day, Gérard Saillant contacted Juan Manuel’s father, Juan Carlos Correa, to assure them that he was at their disposal.

“On Tuesday morning Juan Manuel developed symptoms indicating a respiratory problem. On the same day, the Correa family took the decision to transfer him to a specialist clinic at a hospital in London to receive orthopaedic treatment to his right foot at the earliest opportunity.”

Correa subsequently moved to London and later returned to Miami to continue his recovery.

RaceFans understands that the FIA will communicate its findings of the investigation into the Spa crash imminently.

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Formula 2