How Ferdinand Habsburg turned a crash injury into a "blessing"

Tuesday 27 March, Motorland Aragon. Ferdinand Habsburg is testing the new Alpine A424 LMDh following its inaugural race outing at the Qatar 1812Km. The Austrian driver had been encouraged by finishing seventh in the World Endurance Championship's season-opener alongside Paul-Loup Chatin and Charles Milesi, his team-mates in the #35 entry, after successfully adopting a canny fuel-saving strategy.

But in the last hour of the test, a mechanical failure on the front axle sends the car straight into the wall in Turn 7, which will change the course of Habsburg's year.

"I thought I would get away with it," the 26-year-old candidly admits. "In the end, you have so much adrenaline. It's incredible.

"I was very lucky I stopped myself from getting out of the car myself. I was about to just get out of the car, but you should not. My brain went: 'Okay, let's stay here just for safety'. But in the moment, you just think: 'Ah, OK, pain, but it will be fine'. You don't think of the worst, until the doctor came – it was not the worst, I was very lucky."

Not the worst, but most definitely not ideal: Habsburg sustained two broken vertebrae in the impact, an outcome he describes as "very minimal compression fracture". There never is a good time for such hardship, but Habsburg probably would have preferred different timing.

Coming up the single-seater pyramid, Habsburg raced the likes of Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Mick Schumacher, but wasn't quite as successful, taking just one win over two F3 European Championship campaigns. There was also that famous near-miss in the 2017 Macau Grand Prix, when he crashed at the final corner attempting to pass Sergio Sette Camara for the victory that ultimately went to Dan Ticktum.

Habsburg has endured a difficult start to life at Alpine after breaking two vertebrae in a testing crash

Photo by: Alpine

He subsequently spent two years in the DTM, taking a best finish of third at Zolder in a privateer Audi run by WRT, then switched with the Belgian squad to the WEC for 2021. He flourished, taking the LMP2 title and class victory in dramatic circumstances at the Le Mans 24 Hours, then was crowned champion in the European Le Mans Series the following season after joining forces with Prema.

Three convincing WEC campaigns at WRT convinced Alpine to give Habsburg his big break for 2024 – hence the misery he initially endured upon finding out about the diagnosis, with his first thought being that he was going to miss the next couple of races. Sure enough, Alpine reserve Jules Gounon filled in for the six-hour races at Imola and Spa.

"I want to win Le Mans, I want to win races, and I can only do that with my team-mates if I'm performing 100%," he reflects. "It was really sucking, watching my team-mates doing well, maybe because I know what I'm missing."

"It was kind of a blessing, in a way, that I was forced to lie in my stupid bed and I had to think, and I had to go into my traumas, and into my pains"
Ferdinand Habsburg

And when you're used to a fast-paced way of life, spending two weeks lying in your bed can be a daunting process – one which Habsburg turned to his advantage. Not only did he get closer to his sister as she provided assistance in daily life struggles – like putting socks on – but he most importantly used this time to work on his mental health.

"You know what? It might sound s***, and it was s*** in many situations, but God gave me a lot of time to think and to heal in my mind," he explains. "I think sometimes in life we have issues inside of us, and when we move forward, we look past it, we don't look into the issues and what's causing us real pain in our hearts – and in my heart, you know. I was so used to it from track to track to track to track, and I always knew there was something in my heart that was still broken from past experiences, pain and traumas.

"It was kind of a blessing, in a way, that I was forced to lie in my stupid bed and I had to think, and I had to go into those s***s, into my traumas, and into my pains. It gave me a lot of time to really go through it.

"Nobody likes it, trust me, nobody likes to go through that! Because it had nothing to do with my crash, it was all past life, you know. In a way, from that point of view, it was a blessing, because I don't know the next time that I will have this time again."

Time on the sidelines gave Habsburg time to pause and reflect which he believes has been invaluable

Photo by: Alpine

Is it fair to say that this gave him wisdom?

"I don't know about wisdom, I hope so!" he smiles. "It just helps figure some stuff out that wasn't figured out in my heart, and makes you a bit more of an honest person."

Two weeks after the incident, another recovery phase began: Habsburg started doing physical exercise again, in order to get back into shape.

"Straight-up boxing! Backwards saltos!" he jokes. "No, [it was] just slow movement, body weight exercises, just seeing how far your mobility goes. My biggest weakness was twisting, bending forward. Carrying weight with your back is very hard. Starting to work the muscles – I was working my legs very early, getting my arms into good shape as well, then starting moving into the core and the lower back, and getting strength there.

"The physical side was easy. It was more the mental side, that you're going to miss races – staying positive, or being honest with yourself that you hate the situation. Just keeping the mind healthy. I think anyone that works a lot and is then suddenly stuck at home, they know what happens in your mind. Even if your body can't move, your mind is going crazy.

"It was the first thing that I really understood, my father saying: 'Maybe I'm 65, but in my brain I'm 25. My body has stopped moving, but my brain wants to move'. I was like: 'I understand that now'."

Habsburg got assurances that this particular crash wouldn't happen again, thanks to the Signatech-run Alpine outfit fixing the issue.

"It was a complicated failure, multiple parts that were acting amongst each other," he explains. "It took a long time to really try and understand it. It's still difficult to understand exactly what went wrong, but the team have made changes on the construction of the front of the car."

Habsburg has been convinced by the team that the failure he suffered will not happen again

Photo by: Alpine

Thankful that his squad regularly checked up on him amid fears of being forgotten, Habsburg considered coming back as early as the Spa, just a month and a half after his crash, but this target was too premature. He eventually got back on track the following week at Paul Ricard, at the wheel of an improved car.

"Amazing! I got my drug again!" he exclaims. "I didn't really have any pain there. I was fine. As I am now! The thing that's actually more painful is sitting or standing a long time, like doing Q&As."

Goodness gracious, should we really be having this interview?

"Would my crash happen half a kilometre later, maybe I don't have legs. Maybe I do nothing"
Ferdinand Habsburg

"Trust me, you need to stretch all the time, but it's a part of the job," he adds. "I'm waking up every day stretching, going to sleep every day stretching."

All this meant Habsburg tackled the legendary Le Mans race somewhat differently to how he had anticipated.

"Actually, you know what I thought? I would feel a lot of pressure coming into Hypercar for the first time at Le Mans – and I feel a lot of pressure – but it's not as much," he reveals. "In a way, actually, for me, it's just about getting to the race, doing my job and enjoying it. Because in the end, would my crash happen half a kilometre later, maybe I don't have legs. Maybe I do nothing. So I'm lucky that God put me in a place that I can be here, so I will try to enjoy it."

Habsburg's week at La Sarthe didn't have the happiest of endings. After qualifying a promising sixth, the #35 Alpine suffered a terminal engine failure some five hours into the contest. Habsburg was able to complete five race laps only, and his distress was plain to see.

Nevertheless, he will know better than to dwell on this setback. While his awakening was unique, there are many more Le Mans to come.

Engine failure resulted in an early retirement from Le Mans, but the Austrian surely has many more chances ahead to conquer the race outright

Photo by: Alpine