Formula 3 driver Alex Peroni was injured in a dramatic crash at Monza this weekend when his car struck a so-called “sausage kerb” on the outside edge of the track’s final corner and flipped through the air into the catch fence. Peroni was able to walk away despite suffering a broken vertebra—but as we saw last week at Spa with the tragic death of F2 racer Anthoine Hubert, it could’ve been much worse.
As funny as they sound, sausage kerbs have nothing to do with breakfast, or any other meal for that matter. They’re essentially small speed bumps that Formula 1 recently put in place to discourage drivers from running wide. They also happen to look a bit like ramps, and hitting one at speed can have disastrous consequences. Peroni’s car was launched on Monza’s final corner leading to the start/finish straight, raining down pieces of bodywork as it flipped through the air. It finally came to a rest after hitting a barrier and landing in the fencing. As an aside, it looks like the recently-mandated cockpit halo was key in protecting Peroni from even worse injuries.
The offending kerb was removed from the track following the crash. F1 drivers have consistently complained that the kerbs are dangerous—it remains to be seen whether F1 officials will address the issue in a larger way.