Formula 2 driver Juan Manuel Correa says he hopes to get back behind the wheel of a racing car “somet🥀ime♐ early next year” as he continues his rehabilitation from severe injuries. 

Correa suffered spinal injuries and two broken legs in a 170mph c💮rash that killed Anthoine Hubert during an F2 race at last year’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix in August.

The 20-year-old Ecuadorian-American racer underwent a 17-hour reconstructive surgery in🃏 a bid to save his right🐬 leg from amputation. Following a successful operation, Correa has continued his recovery process from his Miami home.

Speaking as a guest on, Correa, who was told by doctors that📖 he would not be able to drive ꧂again for at least two years, revealed his intentions to beat his initial prognosis.

“They told me that in their opinion if I could walk within one and ꧑a half year🦩s, to two years, that would be a good outcome,” Correa said.

“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.

“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 [2019].

“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 everythiဣng goes wel✨l, 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 its been seven and a half months and they told me it would be a year and a half.”

An official investigation into the multi-car accident at the start of the F2 race found there was no sin🌳gle cause and that no-one was to blame.

Correa described the ⛄crash as “a nightmare you never wake up from🍷”.

“It was s♚hocking and really hard to digest, the whole thin෴g,” he explained.

“At first I couldn’t really process what had happened. It was scary, scary in the moment of the crash, the pain, pulling myself out of the car. Everything was really surreal, like a very, very b🅠ad nightmare. But it’s a nightmare you never wake up from. You have to deal with it.

“The whole process of dealing with it and finding out Anthoin🌱e had passed, it was very sad, very, very sad. Unbelievable. I never thought anything like this could happen, especially in modern times  [when] Formula 1 cars are so safe, and all the categories below that are becoming so safe, that you rarely see big injuries.

“I’ve had massive, massive crashes and I never came out with more than a scratch. So to actually have nearly two fatalities,🌠 and lose someone who was a friend of mine - it was a very traumatic experience.”

Asked if he ever experienced moments where he fell out of love with the idea of going back to racing, Correa - who cited doub🙈le amputee Billy Monger as an inspiration to return to racing - replied: “For sure. Especially in the very beginning when I was still going thro𒁏ugh the worst parts and everything was very uncertain.

“I couldn’t care less about racing at that point, what I cared was what my life in general was going to look like from that point on, my life as 𓆏a human being.

“I think it was both a physical and mental process. Physically we started having a better idea of what would be my problems in the fut☂ure and what I could expect.

“Racinꦓg is really what I love and it only took me a few days to realise I wasn’t going to lose my love for racing that easily. I needed a challenge to motivation myself and do the long journey I have ahead of me.

“Coming back to racing is reall🌊y a challenge that motivates me and ♍keeps me in a positive mind-frame. That’s why this comeback is very important for me.”