The 21-year-old who hails from Ireland is set to have his debut season disrupted as a result, with the youngster likely to miss the next event in a month's time.<\/p>\n
READ MORE:<\/strong> Major concern after 'sloppy, clunky' Manly win<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> NRL stars separated in tunnel after fiery face-off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> AFL legend's plea to wayward Carlton star<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Eaton suffered a T4 compression fracture in a similar incident at Circuit of the Americas in 2021, which put her out of the W Series season finale.<\/p>\n "Yet another driver sustains a broken spine due to sausage kerbs at Imola," she wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n "(FIA) I thought we were making progress with sausage kerb removal??\u00a0<\/p>\n "What's with the silence, Formula Regional European Championship? (sic).\u00a0<\/p>\n "We need to beat the drum until change happens."<\/p>\n Sausage kerbs are designed to stop drivers from gaining an advantage after going off the circuit.<\/p>\n The speed bumps are typically placed on the apex of corners, on the outside of corners, and in run-off areas to dissuade exceeding track limits.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/RacingWeir\/status\/1650313327124381697<\/a><\/p>\n The kerbs have been a controversial topic since terrifying scenes in 2019 when Alex Peroni got airborne and flew high into the air before crashing down into a fence<\/a>.<\/p>\n That accident at the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix resulted in a broken back for the Tasmanian and ended his season early.\u00a0<\/p>\n The kerbs at that part of the circuit were removed as a result, but remained in other parts of the course.<\/p>\n Sophia Florsch suffered a similar fate in the same year, clearing a catch fence before slamming into a photographer's tower in the Macau Grand Prix<\/a>, also breaking her back.<\/p>\n Race Performance Motorsport boss Kieth Donegan, who Fitzgerald races for, blamed circuit design for the problem.<\/p>\n "It's really, really frustrating," he said.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/JOC__1991\/status\/1650171988546134017<\/a><\/p>\n "I'm not satisfied because it shouldn't have happened. These cars are really safe, everything is pushing towards safety. It has to be a certain way \u2013 the crash structure \u2013 but there's nothing to protect the drivers whenever you launch the car in the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n "It's all impact from the wall, you know normally if something comes in on the cockpit (first), but they put these banana kerbs on the track.<\/p>\n "And it's not the championship, it's either the track or whoever homologates the track. They say it's suitable for a single-seater, but it's not.\u00a0<\/p>\n "Like these sausage kerbs are for GT cars with really soft suspension, and whenever a single-seater goes over these sausage kerbs, it launches the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n "I don't know what the philosophy is or what the mindset is to even keep them, because we saw four years ago with Alex Peroni at Monza.\u00a0<\/p>\n "If that wasn't enough for them sausage kerbs to be banned altogether, I don't know what is."<\/p>\n Damage from the impact wasn't limited to Fitzgerald's back.<\/p>\n The car suffered a broken chassis as well as a broken engine, gearbox, front wing, and side pods.<\/p>\n Donegan said he doesn't hold out much hope that the FIA will make changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n "I don't know what it's going to take," he said.<\/p>\n "Because after the Peroni thing \u2013 which was years ago \u2013 and there's been so many since that, like do we just have every second driver on the grid having broken their back at some point?<\/p>\n "I said this morning that sooner or later, somebody will actually have spinal injury from it, because your back is really dangerous [to damage] and they could end up with long-term damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n "We just have to find the solution and start to open the discussion again, because it's just a matter of time before something else happens."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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