09-04-2025
Paralyzed Driver Robert Wickens To Race In Grand Prix Using Bosch Tech
Race car driver Robert Wickens behind the wheel of the DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R outfitted ... More with Bosch Automotive hand-operated brake controls. Wickens's legs were paralyzed after a 2018 on-track crash.
Race car driver Robert Wickens will get behind the wheel of a DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R at Saturday's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Unlike his competition, Wickens will speed through the course without the use of his legs, operate the race car with only his hands, and use, an electronic hand-braking system developed by Bosch.
It will be the first time the system will be in a race car at the Grand Touring Daytona level and Wickens's initial race on the circuit as well. It's a significant step in an excruciating battle that began almost seven years ago after an accident at a 2018 IndyCar Series race at Pocono Raceway.
DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R equipped with Bosch hand-operated brake controls, driven by Robert ... More Wickens whose legs were paralyzed in a 2018 on-track crash.
The way he tells it, he and another driver were fighting for position when their wheels touched, and his car hit a track catch fence.
'I think basically at my point of impact, I was going 212 miles an hour,' Wickens explained in an interview. 'It became a very sudden stop, very quickly, and more of like the kind of the rotation of the car is what did the damage to my body.'
The damage was fractures to both hands, his right arm, left and right leg and some broken ribs, but the multiple injuries to his spinal cord were the most devastating of all, paralyzing his legs.
He went through years of multiple surgeries and rehab, at hospitals and rehab facilities in Colorado, Indiana and Pennsylvania, suffering multiple setbacks but never giving up on the idea of returning to the racetrack.
Race car driver Robert Wickens in front of the DXDT Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R he plans to drive ... More in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach using hand-operated braking controls.
'The question never came to mind that I didn't want to do it,' he recalled. 'Whenever drivers would come to visit me the talk was, oh, I'll make the start of next season. I'll be back. I'll make St. Pete and yeah, and I'll get back on the horse and get after it.'
By 2021, Wickens did get back on the 'horse' driving for the first time since his accident when another paralyzed driver, Michael Johnson, offered to let him take a spin in a car outfitted for him with hand controls for the brakes.
The next year, Hyundai hired Wickens to drive, also with the use of hand controls, but, he said, it was an off-the-shelf, mechanical system he described as 'clunky' that was not satisfactory because of the lag time between squeezing the control and the brakes engaging. That's dangerous, especially at high racing speeds.
Wickens says he knew what he really wanted in a hand-controlled system and began some research. His breakthrough came when he was introduced to folks from Bosch Motorsport, which had developed an electronic braking system, also known as by-wire.
Wickens worked with Bosch to get to the other 20% to meet his requirements and after a year of development debuted the system at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the final rounds of the 2024 Touring Car Class championship in a Hyundai race car.
'Bosch was really my savior, because they, they solved 80% of the puzzle,' Wickens said.
The experience was quite different from that mechanical system in Johnson's Hyundai.
'With the Bosch system, the first time I applied the brake, it was like a hallelujah moment where it's just like it was perfect, instantaneous breaking exactly when I want to hit the brakes,' Wickens said. 'The brakes applied for the same amount of force that I was expecting the brakes to apply with. It feels like it just belongs in the car, like it was just always a component in there, like it was never an afterthought.'
For the upcoming Grand Touring Daytona race in Long Beach, Bosch, Chevrolet and vehicle builder Pratt Miller and DXDT Racing collaborated to adapt the system to the Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
'Robert came to us with a challenge we knew our by-wire technology could help solve — and potentially shape the future of racing,' said Jacob Bergenske, director of Bosch Motorsport North America, in emailed comments. 'From the beginning, our concept was to make the system adaptable to a variety of race cars through a modular software framework. Robert has a bright future ahead, and we're excited to see how this collaboration supports his journey in the years to come.'
'Our team at Pratt Miller delivered a fully integrated solution in a remarkably compressed timeframe—one that enables seamless transitions between hand control and traditional pedal operation with the push of a button,' said Ben Johnson, motorsports technology group executive director, Pratt Miller, in a statement.
Wickens will be sharing the driving with Corvette Racing factory driver Tommy Milner. Aside from simply being able to race, reaching the Grand Touring Daytona level represents a long-sought goal.
'What it means is I'm in the headline race again. You know, in my opinion, I'm racing at the highest levels of motor sport,' Wickens said. 'Being on that grid, taking the green flag in a Corvette Z06 GT3.R, it's going to be awesome.'
The green flag just gets him started. There's that black and white one Wickens has his eyes on, along with sending a message to others in his physical situation.
'The goal is obviously to win. I always want to win.' Wickens says. "But whether if that's a realistic goal or not, we'll have to wait and see. But one thing that I feel like I've made very clear through this whole journey is, I, I love that I'm raising awareness for spinal cord injuries and for anyone disabilities to prove that anything's possible.
