Juan Manuel Correa: Spa Crash, Comeback and the Long Road Back to Formula 2

Juan Manuel Correa is an Ecuadorian and American racing driver whose career was changed by a crash at Spa-Francorchamps in August 2019. He suffered serious leg injuries in the accident that killed Anthoine Hubert, then rebuilt his career in Formula 3 and returned to Formula 2 in 2022.

How did Correa's karting and early single-seater years go?

Correa was born on August 9, 1999, and began karting professionally in 2008. He took titles across Ecuador and the United States and won the Rotax Max Challenge junior title in 2013. During those karting years he came to the attention of the Lotus F1 driver programme.

He made his single-seater debut in 2016 for Prema Powerteam, racing in ADAC Formula 4 and the Italian series alike. He won three races over the campaign, finishing sixth in the Italian series and tenth in ADAC F4. The following year he repeated the programme, concentrating mostly on ADAC F4.

A driver who came back from a near-fatal crash through Formula 3, Formula 2 and sportscars.

How did Correa move into GP3 and Formula 2?

Correa's first GP3 outing came in August 2017, at Spa, driving for Jenzer Motorsport. The following year he joined the team for a full campaign, but he had no podiums despite two reverse-grid pole starts in the sprint races.

He still scored 42 points in 2018 and finished twelfth in the standings. That placed him four positions ahead of his teammate, Tatiana Calderon, who was his only other full-time teammate that season.

In 2019 he stepped into Formula 2 full-time with the Sauber Junior Team by Charouz, alongside Callum Ilott. The early rounds were poor, with finishes outside the top fifteen, but his results began to change at Baku.

What happened in Correa's 2019 Formula 2 season?

At Baku in 2019 Correa finished seventh in the feature race and scored his first Formula 2 points. He then claimed second in the Sprint Race, a result that marked a clear step forward.

Barcelona and Monaco brought no points, but he was back on the rostrum at Le Castellet, second and only two seconds adrift of Anthoine Hubert. That proved to be his last points finish of the year. Three weekends in a row came without points before the Spa round.

What happened at Spa-Francorchamps in 2019?

The accident took place on August 31, 2019, during the feature race at the Belgian round, when Correa's car collided with Anthoine Hubert's on lap two. Hubert did not survive his injuries, and Correa's were serious enough to end his 2019 Formula 2 campaign.

The impact came at 218 km/h (135 mph), with a peak load of 65G recorded. His team's first statement, issued a few hours after the accident, confirmed fractures to both legs and a minor spinal injury. He had been flown to hospital by helicopter, undergone a four-hour operation and been admitted to intensive care, and he was reported to have remained conscious after the crash.

On September 7 his family reported a diagnosis of acute respiratory distress syndrome, made after he was moved to intensive care in London. Doctors then put him into an induced coma with ECMO support, following acute respiratory failure.

How did Correa's recovery progress?

On September 20 his family said he had been taken off ECMO support and woken from the induced coma. The medical priority had moved from his lungs to his legs, because the leg surgery could not go ahead until his lungs were strong enough for a long procedure.

By September 28 his lungs were ready. Correa opted for an approach that tried to keep his right leg, rather than first removing his foot. The operation was scheduled for September 29 and was largely judged a success, but he faced at least a year of rehabilitation.

On January 14, 2020, Correa collected an FIA Americas honour for cars in person, from his wheelchair, at an event in Panama City. The audience gave him a standing ovation, and FIA officials who had flown in from Geneva for the event were among those present.

What did Correa say about his care after the crash?

In a January 28, 2020 interview with NTV, Correa said the FIA had neglected him, leaving him without help while he recovered. He described how he had stayed in hospital while others went to Monza, and he said the doctors in Belgium had not known how to treat the effects of such a large impact.

The same day, Dr Christian Wahlen, who was Spa's chief medical officer when the accident happened, replied. In his account, Correa was given prompt treatment by the doctor at the scene, and then taken to hospital in Liege after consulting an FIA medical delegate. Wahlen also said that he and Gerard Saillant, president of the FIA Institute, had kept the family updated in the days that followed.

On February 10, 2020, Correa said that many of the remarks attributed to him in an earlier article were taken out of context or were not accurate. He said he had not accused anyone of anything, and that he had only described the sequence of events and what his family had gone through. On February 15, 2020, he spoke about the aftermath in a video interview with The Race, saying his legs had looked badly damaged and that he had asked for sedation at the scene. He said he came round about three weeks after the crash.

How did Correa return to single-seaters in 2021?

Correa's comeback season was 2021, in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, where ART Grand Prix put him alongside Frederik Vesti and Aleksandr Smolyar. He opened his points account in race two at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Points arrived again at Le Castellet: sixth in the opening sprint and ninth in the main race, seven points in all. Two more points finishes followed later in the year. He finished 21st in the championship with eleven points, and he then tested with ART at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo after the season.

How did the 2022 Formula 3 season go?

Correa stayed with ART Grand Prix for 2022 and finished thirteenth in the final standings. That was eight places better than the year before, and he had a podium at Zandvoort in the sprint race.

The improvement was clear, and it set up his move back to Formula 2 at the end of the season. In between he had run a test for Charouz Racing System, his former team, but did not race for them because his F3 programme came first.

When did Correa return to Formula 2?

He returned at the 2022 Yas Marina finale, replacing David Beckmann with Van Amersfoort Racing. It was his first Formula 2 start in more than three years, and he said he was ready for the challenge whatever happened.

He qualified 18th and crossed the line fifteenth in the sprint race. A five-second time penalty for a collision with Marino Sato afterwards dropped him back to eighteenth. He finished seventeenth in the feature race and ended the championship 27th.

How did Correa's 2023 Formula 2 season go?

In 2023 Correa was back in Formula 2 full-time, at Van Amersfoort Racing alongside Richard Verschoor. He scored points on six occasions and finished nineteenth in the standings.

The season was a rebuilding year after a long gap. Points finishes were hard to come by, but the campaign gave him a full season of racing in the category again after the crash.

What happened at DAMS in 2024?

The 2024 move took him to DAMS Lucas Oil, where he and Jak Crawford made up an all-American pairing. After the Baku round the team replaced him with Dino Beganovic, a Formula 3 graduate and Ferrari Driver Academy member.

That ended his run of Formula 2 seasons, which had covered 2022 to 2024 across two teams.

Did Correa race in Formula One?

Not in a race seat. During his karting years he was placed in the junior programme of Lotus F1, but he was dropped after the team was taken over by Renault. He was then signed as a development driver for Alfa Romeo Racing for 2019.

In August 2019 he had his first experience of an F1 car, a 2013 Sauber C32 at Paul Ricard, where he completed 62 laps. Once he had recovered through 2020, Sauber's junior team announced he was staying on for 2021.

What has Correa done in sportscar racing?

Correa tested a Prema Powerteam LMP2 car at the end of 2021, his first time in an endurance racing car. In 2022 he joined Prema for the European Le Mans Series, yet a mix of F3 duties and an injury restricted him to the last two rounds.

The team finished third at Spa-Francorchamps on his debut. In the season finale at Portimao he won his first endurance race, which helped Prema take the teams' championship.

In 2023 he drove for Prema Racing's LMP2 entry, car number 9, in the FIA World Endurance Championship, skipping only rounds that clashed with his F2 schedule. The crew of Correa, Bent Viscaal and Filip Ugran took two top-five finishes and ended the season ninth out of eleven teams in the class.

In December 2024 he tried a Super Formula car at Suzuka, testing with Kondo Racing. In March 2025 he was announced for the IMSA SportsCar Championship in LMP2 with United Autosports.

What is Correa doing in Indy NXT?

In 2025 Correa joined HMD Motorsports for selected rounds of the Indy NXT season, starting at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. For 2026 he switched to Cusick Morgan Motorsports, his first full-time campaign in the series.

How does his record look at a glance?