Abt driver Robin Frijns is likely to require wrist surgery after a crash on the first lap of Formula E’s 2023 season-opener at Mexico City.
Frijns – who has joined the returning Abt team from Envision for this year – started only 19th as his team lacked pace all weekend.
He then ran into the back of Norman Nato’s Nissan going into the second part of the track’s new chicane on lap one, with his customer Mahindra briefly bouncing into the air before parking into the run-off area.
The team issued a statement soon afterwards saying “Robin broke his left wrist and will need to undergo an operation here in Mexico”, though a subsequent social media post confirming the fracture suggested he was initially just “being examined” at the hospital.
The next round of the FE season in Diriyah in Saudi Arabia is only two weeks away.
If Frijns’ injury rules him out of that double-header event, one option to stand in for him would be Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala.
Although Daruvala has no Formula E race experience, he has been brought in by Abt’s partner team Mahindra as a reserve this season.
It’s also understood Kelvin van der Linde could be a contender. The South African raced for Abt in the DTM and had an FE test with the team when it was Audi’s factory partner in 2020.
