Rossi, O’Ward & the relationship with crashing at Indianapolis
- Archie O’Reilly
- 40 minutes ago
- 7 min read
“Absolutely not,” he asserted. There was never a doubt in his mind.
Alexander Rossi was not going to be deterred. Even as it came to light that surgery would be required on an injured right ankle and wounded finger on his left hand, if that was what it would take to run the Indianapolis 500, it was not even a debate for the Californian.
“In order to consider driving, they had to stabilise it,” he detailed. And within eight hours of slamming the Turn 2 wall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Monday practice, he had undergone successful outpatient procedures. The intention was simultaneously stated to, less than four days later, return to the car in Friday’s two-hour Carb Day practice.
That is the nature of racing drivers; they can scarcely be held back.
After a clean week of running through qualifying weekend, it was a dramatic first accident of the Indy 500 campaign. After spinning mid-corner, Rossi’s car lifted briefly airborne following his hit with the SAFER barrier, before Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward spun in avoidance and collided heavily with the already-stricken No.20 machine.
“It’s a little bit of a weird one,” Rossi analysed. “I don’t know that there’s a specific answer. The Speedway is a punishing place. It minimises margins. We just were a little bit too far out of that window. That’s the way it goes around here sometimes.
“[Turn 2] is tricky because it’s not shaded so it’s always kind of in the sun. Turn 1 and Turn 3, even though they’re higher speeds, you have the whole straight to cool the tyre down. Turn 4 is usually protected from wind, for the most part.
“The tyre saturation effect that you get in Turns 1 and 3, it just has a bigger impact in Turn 2 because the conditions there are usually the worst. The tyre is already at its limit from going through Turn 1, then Turn 2 is a hard corner from conditions. Turn 4, the tyre is also at its limit - but the conditions are easier so it’s just less traumatic.”
Rossi was speaking on Thursday’s Indy 500 media day, to which he arrived on crutches, wearing his racing boots but bearing no weight on his injured right foot.
It was an improvement on a cast sported during a live appearance on his Off Track podcast on Tuesday and a medical boot during appearances on Wednesday, though it was nonetheless striking one day ahead of final practice and three before the race.
Still, under their regular care and evaluation, Rossi had passed the necessary assessments from IndyCar’s medical director Dr. Julia Vaizer and the wider medical team.
“I am cleared to race,” he said. “I will have to be on crutches because it’s a non-weight-bearing injury. Fortunately, to drive a race car you don’t have to bear weight. Range of motion is good. Pain is minimal. Swelling, I fit into my race boot. I’m good to go. For what I need to do in a race car, I’m at 99 percent.
“I had to drive in a sim, get in and out of the car in an appropriate amount of time. I had to show that I could react to instances quick enough with my right foot in the race car with the pedal and my boot on. That was done over several increments and durations with all of the stuff that will be on me. As thorough as you can be without actually being on the race track.
“I feel good. It’s obviously been pretty hectic for everyone involved; lots of things had to line up in the correct way. But feel very fortunate to be here.”
Rossi went on to joke that he has scarcely been more rested heading into an Indy 500, one decade on from his stunning success at the Speedway as a rookie in 2016. The usual frenzy of commitments have been pared back somewhat to facilitate his recovery.
That extended from his ankle to his (middle) finger, which was already free of any cast or bracing when he spoke to the media at IMS on Thursday afternoon.
“I can’t show you that one,” he joked. “I’ll get in a lot of trouble. [But] we’re good.”
The reality is, given the size of the first impact and then secondary smash with O’Ward, Rossi got away somewhat lightly. But at the Speedway with its preposterous speeds, there is little such thing as a small accident. Monday was no different.
“Anything above 50Gs in motorsport is considered a massive hit. You’re lucky if you’re below 100 here,” O’Ward conceded. “It’s no joke. The hits here are no joke. They hurt.
“Every time you strap into this race car, you need to realise, beyond [where] the safety has gone [and] how amazing these cars are now in protecting us, there’s only so much the human body can take. Even a ‘small’ hit can surprise you how much damage it can do.
“[But] I way much rather would be doing this than doing something else.”
Sitting beside O’Ward, Ferrucci concurred, citing his own suffering of a broken fibula in a Thursday practice crash at the Speedway with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in 2021.
“I had great advice by Bobby Rahal: ‘You’re either going to lift in [Turn 2] and that’s the end of your career or you’re going to keep it flat,’” he cited. “I’m like: ‘Alright, we’ll keep it flat.’ [But if you crash], you’re almost guaranteed to injure yourself.”
In the aftermath of his heavy hit earlier this week, Rossi admitted he received texts from multiple drivers rallying around him. They collectively respect but embrace the danger - and consequently they highly respect the efforts of one another as peers too.
They also share the same resolve to defy any such moments of extreme danger, which around the Speedway are an unwelcome-but-accepted inevitability.
“This is an incredibly close community - we all understand the magnitude of what we’re doing out there,” Rossi explained of the reaction to his Monday incident. “I don’t think it’s lost on anyone how you’re not guaranteed anything in this sport.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about the values of the two impacts but they were very high. And the fact that we’re here having this conversation and joking about a sore ankle is pretty amazing.
“Unfortunately, I’ve crashed twice here. Both times have been Turn 2, for whatever reason. I recovered from that. I don’t see this being any different. We crash race cars; that’s part of the job description. Been doing it my whole career so doesn’t really change this week.”
The famous old saying at the Indy 500 is that there are those who have crashed and there are those who will. Even some of the very best - the greatest champions - have hit the wall. No matter your history or standing, the Speedway will brutally bite eventually.
As greatly unpleasant as that moment may be, there is an argument from many experienced campaigners that the character-building experience of crashing is a valuable one.
“I’m a pretty big believer, especially when guys come here as rookies and they haven’t had that first shunt…” O’Ward paused. “After you have that first shunt, you definitely feel more like a man when you get back in. I feel like it just puts some reality into your head. Like dude, you’re moving. You need to be aware of your surroundings, be careful who you’re running.
“You do grow quite a bit. At least I did. I would say the biggest part is after that first one. I’ve had three here; they’ve all been pretty solid. I’m going to get back in like nothing happened.”
For both O’Ward and Rossi, the obstacle of returning to the car for the final practice running ahead of Sunday’s Indy 500 is made greater by the pair having to go to backup cars, having written off their main chassis in Monday’s collision. That does not stem from a lack of belief in their teams, rather the natural apprehension about the bolting-on of many a spare part.
“Every car has its little differences to one another, regardless of the setup being the same or not,” O’Ward divulged. “I’ve had a good past with this car. Ultimately, I’m not actually worried too much about me with the car; I’m more worried about there’s a lot of new pieces on the car. You want to get some running on to just let it settle in.”
At least for the pair, the accident occurred on Monday after qualifying, when pure car speed becomes less critical, also giving their crews three down-days to put together the spare cars. But of course, building a new car from scratch, rather than being at the stage of fine-tuning ahead of running 500 miles at the weekend, was still not ideal.
For Rossi, there is relief in the fact that his car was previously intended to be run in superspeedway configuration. O’Ward’s car is also familiar, albeit having only supposedly tested it at Indianapolis, as far as he could remember.
“If this was all new components, a different chassis, all that sort of thing, maybe you’d start to question it a little bit,” Rossi disclosed. “This was truly going to be our race car until some other things shifted. This was built all off-season in preparation for this month to be my race car anyways. It’s the car I raced last year. It’s always been a Speedway car.
“A trying couple of days for everyone involved in the No.20 car. It will be a very rewarding one if we can accomplish what we think we can on Sunday.”
In Rossi’s case, there will be physical mitigation required to allow him to get through Sunday’s race pain-free. As much as he insists weight-bearing is not critical to drive the car, managing any lingering effects from the crash will be important.
“If we do our jobs correctly, close to zero,” he said of the scale of pain. “I didn’t say [no painkillers]. There will be a brace of sorts that’s still being finalised. There’s a lot of different things to consider from a size standpoint. You’ve got to preserve the function of being able to do that on the pedals. You have to ensure it’s providing stability, fire resistant.
“There’s a lot of caveats. It’s been an incredible team effort from no less than 12 people in order to make this happen.”
When Rossi gets back in the saddle on Friday - and O’Ward too, for that matter - the toils of the week will be put in the rearview. Because, almost incomprehensible to the mere mortal, that is simply how racing drivers, supremely resilient by nature, are wired.
“We’re so lucky that we are here and get to do this,” O’Ward insisted. “We are kind of risking our lives but this is straight-up badass.”
