Pascal Wehrlein reveals Red Bull boss message after horror crash

Pascal Wehrlein has revealed that he contacted Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies after his horror crash in last season's Formula E São Paulo E-Prix to thank him for saving his life.

Formula E returns to the Brazilian city this weekend for its season-opener, a year on from Wehrlein's terrifying crash which saw him flip upside down.

Remarkably, his helmet made slight contact with the wall, yet he escaped relatively unharmed. Some minor injuries did, however, rule him out of attending the 2024 FIA Awards gala as the world champion.

Ahead of this weekend, Wehrlein spoke about the incident again, revealing in a video with Formula E that he messaged Mekies after the crash.

Wehrlein said in the video: “A couple of days after that crash, I wrote to a friend of mine who now works as team principal of Red Bull, Laurent Mekies. A couple of years ago, when he was at the FIA, they introduced the system — the halo. I texted him, ‘Thank you very much for saving my life.’”

Wehrlein worked with Mekies at Ferrari when he was a simulator and development driver in 2018 and 2019 for the Scuderia, where he built a relationship with the Frenchman.

However, before Mekies worked at Ferrari, he was the FIA safety director and a leading figure behind the introduction of the halo.

The duo spoke again ahead of this week's race in Brazil, with Mekies having contacted Wehrlein after the clip went viral.

"He just sent me a nice voice message again [on Thursday morning], because I didn't expect what I said to go so big and viral," Wehrlein told RacingNews365. "And so he sent me a nice voice message again.

"I know him from my Formula 1 days. I was obviously a sim and development driver for two years at Ferrari when he was also there, and since then, we've kept in contact.

"And like I said, this crash was a reason for me to text him again last year to tell him that I remember the meeting we had when I was in F1.

"They did a presentation on the halo before it arrived — what it is and the reasons for it — and he was leading that programme when he was at the FIA. And I just said, ‘Look, a couple of years ago I remember that meeting, and it has saved so many lives until now, and now it's also saved mine. So thank you very much.’"

Wehrlein eyes title number two

For Wehrlein, the goal is simple in the final season of the Gen3 era: to get the #1 back on his car after being dethroned last campaign by Oliver Rowland.

Wehrlein enters Season 12 as perhaps the title favourite, with Porsche having looked smooth and fast in pre-season testing. Only Jean-Éric Vergne has won the Formula E drivers' title twice, and Wehrlein is hungry to join the Citroën driver on that list.

Asked if his target is the drivers' title, Wehrlein said: "That is the goal. The goal is to get the #1 back on my car. The last three years we've fought for the championship.

"In every season, we've collected a lot of championships. The last two years we've collected all the championships which are there to collect. So you can definitely say we are one of the strongest — or the strongest — team and package overall in this Gen3 era, and we want to confirm that now in the last season.

"We know that everything is going to be quite close this year. It's the last year of the Gen3 car, so everyone will have the best understanding of the car and the package so far, and therefore it will be super tight.

"But I think there's no reason why we shouldn't be competitive and fight for wins and championships again this year."