Update: Motorsport Community Raises Nearly £500k For Severely Injured F4 Driver
The motorsport world was rocked by the horrific crash British F4 driver Billy Monger suffered during a race at Donington Park on Sunday.
Monger collided with the stationary car of Patrik Pasma, who was recovering from a spin, during the final race of the weekend. It took almost two hours to extract Monger from the car before he was airlifted to hospital.
He is in a critical but stable condition and has been placed in an induced coma, with his vital signs “showing progress”. Sadly, the incident has resulted in Monger having both his lower legs amputated. He is expected to be woken up from the induced coma in the next few days.
Monger was starting his second season in British F4, scoring multiple podiums in his rookie season last year.
His JHR Developments team boss Steven Hunter set up a Just Giving page with the target of raising £260,000 for Monger’s recovery, rehabilitation and care. The motorsport community quickly came together to help spread the word about Monger’s story and the fundraising page, with the target being reached within the space of just a few hours.
Messages have flooded in on social media from all over the world, offering their well-wishes and support to Monger and his family.
Over 10,000 donations have come in for the fundraising page, with over £490,000 raised so far (as of Thursday afternoon) – over £200,000 more than the original target. Racing drivers from across motorsport have showed their support, including F1 champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and race winners Mark Webber and Felipe Massa.
Button donated £15,000 to the fundraiser for Monger - an incredible display of kindness from the former McLaren driver.
The strength and response from the motorsport community has been outstanding and brought something positive to a deeply heartbreaking situation.
If you would like to donate to help Monger’s recovery and care, you can do so on the Just Giving page here.
Update
Hunter gave further details on Monger’s condition on Thursday, telling Autosport he had been woken from the induced coma, “was breathing on his own and talking, to a degree”. He added:
“He’s aware of his injuries. He’s exceptionally positive about the situation - he’s sat there working out how to use a clutch on the steering wheel with his hands. That’s Billy. There’s a long, long road ahead, he’s going to go through some hard times, but I’m sure with the character he has he’ll come through it.”
As of early Thursday evening, the fundraising total has surpassed £550,000.
Comments
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Motorsport ain’t always about rivalry. It’s amazing seeing that they did this. It’s really saddening to read that Billy lost both if his legs though. Hopefully he makes a super fast recovery. ✌️
agreed… it’s amazing how people care, you know…
For the most part the motorsport community is a wonderful place, it’s incredible to see the support
Is his racing career over? I feel so bad for him
Kind of sad that these things happen. So happy to see all the support hes getting
Goes to show that the Motorsport community is one of the tightest out there (not in terms of money, obviously)
Wow! That’s more than 200k more than when I looked this morning. It makes me really proud of the touring car community and motorsports fans in general. I saw the crash and it was just awful. Shame on the people posting videos of it to scrounge upvotes.
Not to mention that I believe nearly every single driver in the TOCA package have also contributed :D
Indeed; I believe that for Thruxton in a few weeks time, all the BTCC cars are going to run with the hashtag: #BillyWhizz across the top of their windscreen. That’s truly heartwarming.
The accident reminds me of alex zanardi. He too lost both his legs in a horrific accident. Lets just hope billy can recover as well as zanardi and keep racing.
Donated a tenner last night and they were ‘only’ at £95k. Good to see the support for the kid
Yeah I did the same last night when it was around the same figure, awesome to see so many well wishes and donations
How old is he?
He looks like a kid
He is 17
Just goes to show how close the motorsport community really is