Alpine’s Ferdinand Habsburg admitted that he’s on the “back foot” at Le Mans this week after suffering the “worst crash” of his career two months ago in Aragon.
“Yeah, I’m on the back foot,” he said.
“I have catching up to do. It’s like I missed some days of school and I have to catch up on some homework basically.
“The homework is just getting to know the car and feeling it.
“Especially on those cold tyres, that’s what’s difficult. Experience on the different compounds, those are the kind of things I’m missing a bit.”
The Austrian driver suffered a nasty impact during an endurance test at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain back in April, breaking two vertebrae and slipping a disc.
The significant injuries sustained in what Habsburg described as his “worst crash in my career so far” forced him to sit out on the sidelines.
After returning to the #35 Alpine A424 cockpit during last Sunday’s test session at Le Mans, Habsburg realised that his significant recovery period coincided with multiple changes on the French prototype.
“I came here on the test day. I was so lost to be honest, because they changed the car so much and improved it, I needed so much time to adapt myself,” he said.
The Alpine driver explained that the greatest changes had been made to the software package on the A424 whilst also relaying how much of a shock to the system it was going from being bedridden to flying down the Mulsanne straight.
“The way the car behaves and how the mapping works in the car is very different and also, I’ve got to say, you’ve got to imagine the only tracks I’ve ever driven this car is normal test tracks, like Aragon, Portimao and Barcelona and Qatar,” he said.
“There’s completely different challenges.
“I went from being two and a half months in a bed to going 240 kilometres an hour. The speed is powerful, especially in the night, you can really feel it.”
Talking of his recovery, Habsburg paid tribute to the Alpine team who were constantly checking in on his progress, saying “I’m very grateful that I was not forgotten about.”
The Austrian found it “difficult to accept” crashing so soon into his time with the A424, and the prolonged period he had away from learning about the prototype machine.
Regardless, Habsburg is feeling good heading into the weekend and his objectives are clear.
“I think at least I’m back to where I was before,” he said.
“In the end, I want to win Le Mans. I want to win races and I can only do that with my teammates if I’m performing 100%.
“My back feels very strong and good.
“I think that I still have some training to do for myself, and I wish I could have prepared a bit more for Le Mans. But in the end, Le Mans is mostly about the head and the mind, staying sharp and staying focused.
“I have a big objective for myself, so I think that will keep my adrenaline high and my focus level high.”
