Banned F2 racer Ferrucci apologises for ‘mental lapse’ at Silverstone

Recently-banned Formula 2 racer Santino Ferrucci has issued an apology for his actions after causing a post-race collision with Trident teammate Arjun Maini at Silverstone. 

The American appeared to turn into the rear of fellow Haas Formula 1 development driver Maini’s car on the cool-down lap following last weekend’s F2 sprint race at the British Grand Prix venue. He was found guilty of deliberately hitting the Indian driver and was subsequently handed a four-race ban and a €60,000 fine. 

Trident issued a statement in the aftermath of the incident saying the matter and “uncivilised behaviour” from both Ferrucci and his father was being dealt with by lawyers. 

But on Monday evening, Ferrucci took to social media to apologise, insisting there was no “intent, premeditation or any type of retaliation” in his behaviour, which he labelled as a “mental lapse”. 

“I want to send my sincerest apologies for my actions on Sunday at the FIA F2 race at Silverstone Circuit,” Ferrucci wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

“I used extremely poor judgement at the conclusion of the race getting far too close to my teammate Arjun Maini and swerved away only to graze his tyre, very fortunately causing no damage or issue to his car. 

“There was no intent, premeditation or any type of retaliation by my actions, only anger and frustration as this has been a horrific year. 

“I have no excuse other than the fact that I am a twenty year old Italian American with a deep passion for motorsport, which is a very emotional sport,” he added. 

“While there has been much provocation leading to my mental lapse, it is still not an excuse and I will make sure that this does not happen again.

“I realise I have embarrassed many people and I apologise to my sponsors, Trident, my fellow drivers, Haas F1, FIA, FIA F2, my fans, friends and family.”

Ferrucci also gave reasoning for his failure to attend a requested FIA stewards post-race hearing, explaining he was randomly selected for a drugs test and then needed to leave the circuit in order to catch a flight to attend what he described as an “extremely urgent and time sensitive" family medical issue. 

“I also want to apologise to the FIA stewards for not being able to attend the hearing,” he said. “I was randomly selected for a drug test, as were others, and this delayed my return to the paddock by over an hour.

“At that point I very quickly packed and had to leave for the airport to catch an early afternoon flight back to the US to attend an extremely urgent time sensitive family medical issue. 

“I was notified of the stewards meeting as I was leaving and did send an email to my team manager to forward to the stewards explaining that I had no options but to leave.”

It emerged earlier on Monday that Ferrucci had requested to race with a livery bearing US president Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan for the Silverstone round, though the FIA rejected his wish.