On the occasion of the last race of the W Series, staged in Austin, the absence of Marta Garcia and Abbie Eaton was noted on the starting grid.
The Spanish driver did not specify at the beginning what was the problem that forced her to skip Race 2, but then wanted to clarify through her social media that she had suffered from an anxiety attack and that she had prioritized her health.
“Hi, I just wanted to let you know I’m fine. Thanks for all the support,” Garcia wrote. “Sometimes we underestimate our mental health. I have suffered from anxiety for a long time and this problem has plagued me all this season. Yesterday I felt that I had to prioritize my health.”
Marta Garcia, precedes Beitske Visser
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
The problem suffered by Abbie Eaton was quite different. The Englishman in Race 1 suffered a compression fracture of a vertebra after hitting a bollard placed on the outside of a curb. Eaton, after being hospitalized, branded the curbs as “ridiculous” as another driver suffered a similar injury in a US F4 race.
Marta Garcia’s message came at a time when there is talk of mental health in motorsport. It was recently Lando Norris who admitted that he suffered from these kinds of problems during his debut F1 season in 2019.
Toto Wolff, in an interview granted to Motorsport.com, also expressed himself on the issue, underlining the impact on mental health that the next 23-race calendar will have and highlighting how this problem will have to be addressed.
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