Correa aiming for 2021 racing return

Juan Manuel Correa is targeting a return to motorsport in 2021, two years after sustaining serious injuries in the crash that took the life of Anthoine Hubert.

As a result of the incident at Spa-Francorchamps, was airlifted to hospital and it was revealed he had been left with serious leg injuries and lung failure.

The Ecuadorian was in a coma for a number of weeks, and since returning home he has been in a rehabilitation program at his home in Miami.

Correa told ESPN: “I never really got a solid prognosis, and it still is very step by step.

“The injuries I had to my right leg, especially, were so severe that in the beginning, a few weeks after the crash, we were just focused on trying to save the leg.

“It was so bad that they even gave me the option of an amputation. I opted to save it. It seemed like that went well, but it was a very stressful three weeks to see if my body accepted the leg or dismissed it.

"So it was three weeks of just waiting to see if the leg turned blue and fell off, pretty much. It was a long process and kind of at each checkpoint we would look at the next prognostic and what was the best outcome and the worst outcome.

“When I left the hospital in London, in November, they told me it would probably take me around five to six months until I would be walking on crutches again and using my left leg normally, because my left leg was banged up – not as bad as the right one, but it needed a lot of rehab. 

“They told me that in their opinion if I could walk within one and a half years, to two years, that would be a good outcome. That was in the case that everything went OK with the leg and I could save the leg. There was still a lot to be done for that leg to be ready to walk.”

Correa added that his main focus was getting back behind the wheel of a race car.

“I was very blunt with them; I said ‘when can I drive again if I want to drive?’ They said not before two years – this was in November.

“Looking at how it has all progressed up until now, I think I will not be driving this November, but probably sometime early next year, if everything goes well, so that’s still almost a year ahead of that prognostic the doctors told me.

“I was in crutches three weeks after they told me it would take me six months, and I am nearly walking now and it has been seven and a half months, and they told me it would be a year and a half.”