Broken gearbox screw cost Correa shot at maiden F3 win in Austria

Correa had taken the lead in Saturday’s sprint race at the Red Bull Ring from poleman Caio Collet before he was forced to retire on lap five, with Jak Crawford going on to collect the win after a move on Collet.

It was another “frustrating” moment for 22-year-old Correa in a disrupted season, having been forced to sit out the Imola round earlier in the season after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot in Bahrain.

Speaking to Motorsport.com after the race, the American said a screw which held the gear actuator in place had broken, something which is “extremely rare - never happened to me before and I think the team either”.

Correa said: “Very frustrating, really sad, to be honest. The race started just how I planned it, I made the move in the first lap, the restart was good and everything was going well until that.

“So quite a sour taste in my mouth.”

He added: “Until that point it was the perfect race, so that’s the positive I’ll take from it, but unfortunately in this sport what matters is what’s on the paper at the end of the race.

“This year it hasn’t been the first time that we’ve had the pace but we haven’t put the result on the leaderboard and also for the championship, giving away what was possibly 10 or 11 points definitely burns.”

Juan Manuel Correa, ART Grand Prix, Arthur Leclerc, Prema Racing, Alexander Smolyar, MP Motorsport

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Correa began to struggle again with pain in his injured foot on Saturday, but is hopeful it will be manageable tomorrow.

The Sauber Academy member says his season so far has been a “rollercoaster”, but believes the same was the case in 2021 as he continued his recovery from a horrific crash at Spa in 2019.

Correa suffered serious injuries to his legs following the incident, which claimed the life of Anthoine Hubert, and was placed in an induced coma to aid his recovery from acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Following a lengthy period of rehabilitation, Correa gained sufficient mobility in his legs to return to racing and joined ART in F3 for the 2021 season, partnering Frederik Vesti and Alexander Smolyar.

Correa said: “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster season, which is weird to say this year because last year was a rollercoaster season as well with all the injuries and stuff I had to go through.

“But this year, I thought it was going to be smoother. It started off with missing the first day of testing in Bahrain due to Covid.

“The race in Bahrain was quite positive, then the stress fracture came. I missed all the testing between Bahrain and Imola, then I missed the race in Imola, then I missed all the testing in Barcelona, and then I came back in Barcelona with a decent weekend, all things considered.

“Silverstone was a bit of write off for the whole team, really bad weekend for us, and now this.

“Summed up, it’s not been the best season, definitely, but we’ve had pretty good pace in most of the places except Silverstone – I would say that was our only off weekend this year, everywhere else we’ve had good potential.”

Correa said he is feeling optimistic for Sunday’s feature race, which he will start from 11th, and believes points are “definitely possible.”