Pit stop drama for Luca Engstler at Zandvoort: How an “unfortunate chain of circumstances” led to a Grasser mechanic being seriously injured
Bad accident in Saturday’s DTM race at Zandvoort: When Grasser driver Luca Engstler came into the pits to change tires on lap 14, he hit one of his mechanics on the leg with his Lamborghini! The man requires medical treatment and is taken to hospital seriously injured
“I had a terrible pit stop, dragged a mechanic with me,” says Engstler, whose crew was not ready, describing the terrible moments. “I was under the wing of another car and drove to my pit spot as usual. But they were still preparing and it looks like something went wrong.”
For Engstler, the race was over after the accident, but the youngster’s thoughts were immediately with his mechanic: “I hope he’s okay, but it doesn’t look so good.” But how could it have come to this in the first place?
“A chain of very unfortunate circumstances “
“It was a chain of very unfortunate circumstances”, because the Grasser mechanics only got into position late so as not to hinder Ricardo Feller, who came in on the same lap and stopped in the direction of travel directly in front of Engstler in Abt’s side box.
“I said to the guys: ‘Go out a little slower and watch the Abt car,'” says Grasser. But then there was a serious mistake. “The two mechanics operating the impact wrenches mixed up the ‘guns’ when they went out,” says Grasser.
This would have led to problems at the stop, because the compressed air hose of the impact wrench (also known as the “gun”) on the side of the pit lane is too short to reach the outside of the pit lane. In addition, the longer outer hose is routed via a rotating arm of the pit stop system
Tangled impact wrench hoses before the stop
“That’s why they had to swap the ‘guns’ again,” explains Grasser. “And during the swap, the two hoses got tangled up. So there were three mechanics in position – and one of them was playing with the hose to get the ‘gun’ out. Unfortunately, he was standing with his back to the direction of travel.”
But why was Engstler, who was in 17th place before the stop, unable to react and brake in time? It had to do with the fact that Dörr-McLaren driver Clemens Schmid – himself a Grasser driver until the end of 2023 – drove back into the fast lane directly in front of him after his botched stop. This obscured Engstler’s view
Why Engstler had no chance
“When Luca came into the pits, he was right on Schmid’s bumper – and of course couldn’t see what was happening in the pits. When the pit-in board came on the left, he pulled to the right – as is customary – and hit the brakes, because that’s also his braking point. But then you don’t manage to stop three or four meters beforehand. ”
Engstler didn’t stand a chance. “The mechanic was standing right in the middle, where the car normally stops,” explains Grasser. “Luca couldn’t pull away because if he had driven to the left, he would have hit two people.” Engstler hit the mechanic “head-on on the left ankle” with his car, says Grasser.
How the injured mechanic is doing
How is the mechanic doing now? “The situation is stable,” says Elisabeth Grasser – wife of the team principal and responsible for team management and press at the Austrian team – “He’s fine so far, he’s responsive. His foot is probably broken at the ankle, but we haven’t received any precise information from the hospital yet.”
After the accident, the mechanic was “taken to a hospital near Amsterdam,” she explains. “We are currently organizing to take him home.”
Team boss Grasser stands behind his shocked team after the accident: “You can’t blame anyone for this.” The fact that his mechanics had mixed up the impact wrenches was “bad luck”. “A brief moment of lack of concentration – and then that happens.”
Engstler wants to visit the man in hospital that evening “and apologize”, “He said it wasn’t my fault, but you still feel guilty somehow when you knock someone off with your hood. “