Three years after a horrific IndyCar accident that left the Canadian racer with paraplegia, Wickens is back on track. And he won't be satisfied until he's back on top.
Robert Wickens wasn't happy qualifying second. He knew he could've gotten pole, but he's still figuring out how hard he can push in the new-to-him Hyundai Elantra N TCR, and complications from the chip shortage mean the team is waiting on a display that shows predictive lap times. These aren't race-car-driver excuses, just reality. Sitting in his RV, quiet and air-conditioned, Wickens isn't dwelling on P2, but he doesn't want to accept any congratulations either.
"We were there, and it was our first race with Michael Johnson, and we had just adapted one of our Velosters to use his hand-control system. We're sitting around talking, and Sean Jones, my business partner, brought up Robert Wickens, and, 'Hey, we should reach out to Robert and see if he's interested in trying the car out.'"
Hinch and Wickens raced karts in Canada together as teenagers and kept in touch as their careers blossomed, James in the U.S., Robert in Europe. They eventually reunited as teammates in 2018 at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ."I think a lot of athletes when they get hurt, they hide," Hinchcliffe says."They don't want people to see them in anything other than their peak-level performance. And Robbie took kind of a selfless approach in that whole situation.
Things are, of course, not simple. Wickens lacks the core strength that's so crucial to holding yourself up in a race car, and he needs the assistance of Leo to get in and out of the car. During pit-stop practice at Daytona, Wickens broke a rib while being pulled out of the car and had to do the preseason test and race weekend with a painful injury.
"The good thing is I still remember how to drive quickly," Wickens says."It's just trying to adapt that with hand controls is the challenge." Plus, he never lost the thing that's made him such a force for his entire career—his mental strength.
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