The cardinal rule in motorsport is not to have a crash with your teammate.
Unfortunately for New Zealander Louis Sharp and his Prema Racing teammate, Australian James Wharton, that happened at the opening round of the Formula Three championship at Melbourne.
Sharp was the fastest car on track after having started 13th and by lap eight he was battling Wharton for seventh.
After trying to go around the Australian on the outside at turn four, Sharp slid off the track and on rejoining he was side-by-side with Wharton and they touched.
The resultant heavy crash brought out the red flag and the race last weekend was abandoned.
“To be honest, there’s probably stuff we both could have done differently,” Sharp told the Herald.
“I had so much pace but in hindsight I probably didn’t need to get the move done right then.
“I maybe could have waited a couple more corners, or a lap or so, but at the end of the day I’m a racing driver and I thought the move was on.
“I got pushed off [turn four] and came into turn five and two into one didn’t really go. I need to sit down with the team and properly discuss things.
“We need to discuss what happened and then how we can make sure this doesn’t happen again in the future, but it’s a tricky one. When you’re racing as hard as we all are everyone’s fighting for the absolute max and sometimes these things happen.”
Such was the force of the impact, Sharp had to be helped out of the car and was immediately taken to hospital. The 18-year-old was kept in overnight and scans revealed he had sustained damage to three of his vertebrae.
While nothing major was discovered, the injury is serious and he faces about six weeks of recovery. There is one shining beacon though, because of the unrest in the Middle East, the Bahrain round of the championship has been cancelled, so his next race is Monaco from June 4-7.
“Unfortunately, I fractured three vertebrae in my back, which I believe are T11, T12 and L1. Obviously not ideal and thankfully there was no surgery required.
“The doctor said the most important thing for me to do was just to rest. I’m not really allowed to do much, but I’m mobile and able to walk, so that’s a positive.
“I’m obviously in a little bit of pain, but really, it’s not too bad, all things considered. To be honest, I was pretty lucky as it could have been, from what I understand, quite a lot worse.
“It’s not the ideal situation we want to be in, but the timing could have actually worked out pretty well. It’s unfortunate the reasons [Middle East unrest] we won’t be able to go, but in my case it might have actually helped out.
“I’ve got a few weeks at home to really recover and make sure I do the recovery process properly and don’t rush it.”
Despite the abrupt end to his opening round with a new team, not all is lost. There are a number of positive indicators that Sharp’s move to Prema Racing for the 2026 season will reap a number of rewards.
Although his time in the car was truncated at Melbourne because of the crash, Sharp is happy with the potential of the car and has already demonstrated its speed.
“Everything was feeling really good [with the car]. I was really confident with the balance and the pace was really good.
“I was managing the tyres, but I was still fastest, so this is a really strong sign. It’s a shame not to have made the full race distance so we can see how we would have evolved over the race, but I think we would have just gotten stronger and stronger as it went on.
“It’s a really big positive to know how strong the pace is, and to take that forward as a big confidence boost is really positive,” said Sharp.
He may have only done eight laps at race pace, and is keen to get more rounds under his belt to fully understand the car, but the signs are there he has a car to challenge the front runners.