Ricciardo: Peroni’s horror F3 crash ‘another lesson’ for F1

Daniel Ricciardo says FIA Formula 3 driver Alex Peroni’s huge aerial crash during the Italian Grand Prix weekend acts as “another lesson” for Formula 1.

Peroni was dramatically launched into a terrifying somersault before landing in the catch fencing after running over the sausage kerb on the exit of the Parabolica during the opening F3 race of the weekend at Monza on Saturday.

Despite initially walking away unaided from the scene of the crash, the 19-year-old Australian suffered a fractured vertebra and concussion-like symptoms in the incident and remains in observation in hospital.

The FIA immediately acted by removing all the sausage kerbs at the final corner in the wake of the accident prior to the start of the final F1 practice session.

“It’s weird, you would never think that little kerb there could have such an impact,” Ricciardo said.

“Unfortunately sometimes something needs to happen until you realise the consequence of it. I never, ever looked at that kerb and thought that was a danger or a threat.

“I don’t know if the kerb had lifted a bit off the ground, that’s what caught the car, but yeah, I couldn’t actually believe seeing it.

“I was actually happy to see it, because I know if they’re going to show a replay then it means the driver is OK more or less.”

The incident came just a week after the tragic events at Spa, with a serious accident in F2 claiming the life of Anthoine Hubert and leaving fellow racer Juan Manuel Correa in a ‘critical but stable’ condition in hospital.

"He’s an Australian, I know Alex a little bit,” Ricciardo added. “I was actually quite excited to message him, I was watching the race and he got up to sixth or something, having a really good race.

“I was close to messaging him, like yep, awesome race, good on ya, and then I saw that. I was in touch with him a little bit. He’s OK.

“He did an Instagram as well saying a vertebra is broken or something, but for the most part he’s OK. But crazy.

“It’s another lesson for us. Even if it seems like nothing, I think at those speeds as well, if you get a little bit of turbulence under the car, it can take off.

“It’s the famous [Mark] Webber crash in the sports car back in the day. Fortunately he’s OK. Now we just know we can’t have those on any high-speed corners.”