Exclusive: Foster opens up on heavy Detroit IndyCar crash

Credit: Louis Foster

The biggest win from IndyCar’s Detroit Grand Prix weekend was seeing Louis Foster and Felix Rosenqvist both emerge from a heavy accident at the end of the 0.7-mile run to Turn 3.

Foster was promptly seen and released by the IndyCar medical team. And while Rosenqvist was taken away on a stretcher after complaining of leg pain, he was able to extract himself from the cockpit of his stricken car and was also cleared after evaluation. 

Speaking to DIVEBOMB on Thursday, Foster admitted he has felt no ill-effects since the incident, which was caused by a suspension failure on his No.45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) machine.

“I’m alive and well,” the British rookie said. “I wasn’t concussed, wasn’t knocked out… I’m absolutely fine. I woke up on Monday and no pain whatsoever, which realistically is a testament to IndyCar safety these days.”

The incident occurred under braking on Lap 84 at the end of the bumpy, long straight into the hairpin at Turn 3. The front-right suspension of Foster’s car collapsed, initially causing him to hit the right-side wall at the end of the straight.

There was a car between Foster and Rosenqvist, but with no way to control his race car, Foster hurtled heavily, nose-first into the back of the Swede’s No.60 Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) machine. Rosenqvist then made abrupt contact with the Turn 3 tyre bundle.

Foster slid into the runoff area, where he finally suffered a third impact - with the mercifully-placed tyres at the end of the escape road. 

While he was conscious throughout the crash and walked away after taking a moment on the side of his car, Foster does not recall much of the accident as it unfolded.

Credit: FOX Sports

“What’s not funny but funny about what the brain does is it protects you from moments like that, whether it be a crash or whether it be something that happens in your life,” Foster said. “Your brain tends to forget it intentionally, I found. 

“I remember hitting Felix quite hard and then I remember after that going towards the tyre barrier and then just closing my eyes and being like: ‘Well, I don’t want to watch this happen. If I can’t see it, it’s not happening.’ 

“I don’t remember the first hit. But I do remember when I hit the brakes, the front right popping up and my initial thought was: ‘Ah, this is going to suck.’ Because there’s nothing you can do - you’re just a passenger at that point.”

Foster was told by a member of the medical team that his impact had registered at around 30G, though it is hard to know for sure given there were three separate contacts.

“She asked me: ‘Does 30 sound about right to you?’” Foster said. “And I was like: ‘I don’t know. I don’t crash very often so I don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like!’ But apparently about 30. 

“It wasn’t huge because the first impact wasn’t head-on - it was square across the wall a little bit. Second impact was into a car that was going in the same direction so that softened it as well. And then the third impact was into a massive tyre barrier when I’ve already killed a lot of speed. 

“I don’t think there was one peak G. It was all just a few hits. It wasn’t fun but I was able to get out under my own power and woke up on Monday morning expecting to feel sore and nothing at all.”

Credit: Chris Owens

RLL received a report from Dallara immediately on Monday, diagnosing the component failure that caused Foster’s suspension to crumple as it did.

“Basically there’s part on the lower control arm where the suspension, the control arm mounts into the monocoque,” Foster said. “On the other side of that, there’s a bracket that sits on the inside of the tub. That bracket snapped basically. And because that bracket snapped, it just came off. It fell off basically.

“Dallara’s review to all the teams has been to check your brackets, make sure that there’s no fatigue. And if you want to replace them, then order some more.”

The actual cause of the failure is unknown at this stage. But Foster is confident that the unforgiving nature of the bumps on the Detroit streets must have played a role.

“It’s definitely something to do with the fact that it’s Detroit,” he said. “One hundred percent that would not have happened anywhere else - I could wholeheartedly say that. It’s a very bumpy circuit. It’s basically a stress test for Indy cars that track. That race is 100 laps so that’s part of it 100 percent. 

“I don’t know when that part was last changed from my car but I spoke to the boys at Rahal and they said there was no reason that they thought there would be an issue. Obviously I’m fully behind them and I don’t think there’s anything differently they could have done. 

“So it’s just a combination of things and unfortunate. But at least now we know and at least no one was hurt.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Less than two months on from Takuma Sato damaging a chassis in the Indianapolis 500 open test for RLL, it is unclear at this point whether this No.45 tub will be able to race again.

The multiple impacts, particularly the front-to-rear strike of Rosenqvist’s MSR machine, mean the chassis has taken significant damage. In fact, Foster was fortunate to have avoided a possibly more serious situation.

“I think that’s probably a done chassis,” Foster said. “It would be okay, but when I hit Felix, obviously I hit straight into the gearbox and it just took a chunk out of it. 

“It wasn’t far from going through the chassis when I looked at it. The width of how far deep it went in, it was close to going through the chassis, which then would have been a serious injury. 

“But I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see but I don’t think it’s repairable.”

Foster’s best race result so far remains 11th-place on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, closely followed by 12th in his debut Indy 500. He was on course for a possible maiden top-10 finish in his rookie IndyCar season at the time of the accident in Detroit. 

“It’s a shame,” he said. “I had really strong race pace. I think my average race pace was sixth through the best 20-ish laps of the race. We had really good out-laps and in-laps. It was just a really good day in general up until that point.”