Billy Monger Reveals How He Races After Loosing His Legs
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Term
cockpit
The cockpit is the part of the car where the driver sits. In a race car, it’s a very tight space with all the controls close by.
Term
induced coma
An induced coma is when doctors put someone to sleep on purpose to help them recover. He’s describing the medical treatment after the crash.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is the biggest and fastest open-wheel racing series in the world. He’s saying he dreamed of racing at the very top.
Part
steering wheel
The steering wheel is what you turn to steer the car. In race cars, it can also have extra controls on it.
Term
throttle
The throttle is what makes the car go faster. He’s saying he used a hand lever instead of a foot pedal to control speed.
Concept
racing driver
It means someone who races cars for sport or as a job. Billy used to do that before his injury.
Concept
go-karting
It’s racing in small kart-style cars. A lot of professional drivers start this way when they’re young.
Concept
double amputee
It means he lost two limbs. He’s talking about the injury that changed his life and racing career.
Concept
race car
It’s a car made for racing, not normal road use. He’s saying he got back into one after his accident.
Concept
crash
A crash is when a race car has a bad accident. In this conversation, it’s the event that changed Billy Monger’s life.
Concept
motor racing
This just means car racing as a sport. He’s talking about getting back into competitive driving after a serious accident.
Concept
IndyCar
This is a famous racing series with very fast single-seat cars. It’s one of the biggest forms of open-wheel racing in the U.S.
Term
hand controls
These are special controls that let a person drive without using their feet. They’re used when someone can’t operate the pedals normally.
Company
Team Brit
This is a racing team and support group that helps injured people get back into motorsport. They make it possible for drivers with disabilities to race.
Part
hand clutch
This is a special lever or control that replaces the normal foot pedal for the clutch. It helps a driver start moving and change gears even if they can’t use their leg the usual way.
Term
simulator
This is a practice setup that lets someone drive virtually instead of in a real car. Racers use it to learn skills and get comfortable with controls before going on track.
Term
oversteer
This is when the back of the car slides out more than the driver wants. Drivers have to react fast to keep the car from spinning.
Concept
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is one of the biggest names in racing. Billy is saying he wanted to be as successful as Hamilton.
Concept
podium
In racing, the podium is the stage for the top finishers. If a driver is on the podium, they finished near the front and usually get a trophy.
Concept
the accident
This is the crash that changed his life. The conversation is about how he and his family dealt with it afterward.
Company
Hera
Hera is the company being advertised here. It’s the brand behind the website and discount code mentioned in the intro.
Concept
motor sport
Motor sport just means racing and other competitive driving sports. He’s saying that racing was the one thing he really wanted to keep doing.
Concept
Covid
This is the pandemic that affected everything, including racing. It made sponsors pull back and made it much harder to keep a racing seat funded.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is the highest level of open-wheel racing. Billy is saying he stayed close to that world even when he wasn’t driving.
Concept
F1 paddock
The paddock is the behind-the-scenes area at a race. It’s where the teams and important people are.
Brand
Johnny Herbert
Johnny Herbert is a former racing driver. He raced in Formula 1 and later became a TV personality.
Concept
amputated
Amputated means a body part had to be removed by doctors. Here it refers to Billy losing both legs after the crash.
Concept
Formula 4
Formula 4 is one of the first steps in open-wheel racing for developing drivers. It’s a beginner-friendly racing class compared with Formula 1.
Concept
mental strength
It means staying tough in your head when things go badly. In racing, that helps a driver keep going after crashes, injuries, or pressure.
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The last thing I remember is basically driving up the crest of a hill.
I'm presented with this stationary car, and I hit the back of this stationary car.
I was awake for about 45 minutes in the cockpit before I was put into an induced coma.
Life since then has been about, basically, really.
My name's Billy Munger. I was a racing driver.
The girl from probably about the age of 10 or 11 wanted to be in Formula 1.
It was scary getting back in a racing car, but looking back, it was so much scarier if you did it.
If I hadn't got back to racing, I think that that is just mentally a really daunting prospect.
How alien did those controls feel to you at first?
I had a lever behind the steering wheel on the left.
I would sort of use my index finger and middle finger to pull, and that was the throttle.
On my right hand, we had the gears, and I broke with my right leg.
How did you get onto the grid to present for the first time in a pundit role?
I said no, initially, because I was so focused on racing and driving myself.
I don't necessarily want to be a presenter of Formula 1, but I wanted to be the driver.
The whole first few months really was a bit of a blur, and there definitely were highs and lows
and tums where I was a bit like, why me?
I've got back behind the wheel of a single seat car again,
and I remember that day just being like, smiling ear to ear.
Do you ever think that, do you know what, I wouldn't go back to how I was before?
Good question.
Billy, stories like yours are literally why I started Road to Success.
It's to be inspired, it's to show courage, bravery, all the things we think of in truly amazing individuals.
But in your own words, who are you and what do you do?
Yeah, I guess so. My name's Billy Munger.
I was a racing driver, and I started go-karting when I was six years old.
Progress through the ranks until I got into British Formula 4 when I was 17,
and then I had a racing crash where I became a double amputee.
And then life since then has been about basically learning to walk again and getting back in a race car,
racing again as a double amputee against overworldly drivers,
and then in more recent times, a few different charity-based challenges and bits and pieces as well as media career.
Obviously, so much good and bad has come from that moment,
because amazing things have sprung from it, but also a complete different challenge to life has come from it.
But I like to get inside your head a little bit of what it makes you feel like on a day-to-day basis.
Do you get annoyed with constantly being asked about one continuous moment in your life over and over and over again?
Yeah, good question. I think for me, I find it boring in a way,
because I obviously have talked about it lots and lots of times,
but I can understand why people ask the question because it is a huge moment in my life,
and I have, like you say, a lot of good and bad and opportunities and sort of learnings have come from that moment.
So it's definitely a pivotal moment in my life, but I've just talked about it a lot.
It obviously added fire and ambition to yourself as an athlete though,
because before racing driver locked in, now your world as an athlete has opened up in so many ways
and you're doing all kinds of different sports. You've done an Ironman sub-17 minute, insane.
So do you ever kind of have that moment to think about, I wouldn't want to be any different?
Do you ever think that, you know what, I wouldn't go back to how I was before?
Yeah, I think for me, I try not to look too much in the past, like the past is the past,
and to be honest, looking back at the person I was before my accident and the person that I am now,
very different people have learned a lot through my accident, my experiences,
the opportunities that my accident has presented.
I actually think it's pointless to always look back on, you know, what if,
because this is my reality, this is my situation, so I'm just trying to make the best of it day to day
and live the best life I can.
I don't want to cover points that you've been asked over and over and over again,
so I'm going to try and get into some questions that you may not have been asked as much.
I want to ask, when you woke up, I think you said it was three or four days after that horrific crash,
on the hospital bed, kind of been in a coma, that's obviously going to be hearing that news
such a low point for a few days, you know, and adjustment, everything.
Yeah.
When was your first, like, glimpse of inspiration from what you could do from that moment
in the coming weeks, like, hang on a minute, like, maybe I can get back in a car,
maybe I could do this, maybe I could do that.
How quickly were you able to find a positive?
Yeah, I think it was fairly quickly, to be honest.
I think I had a lot of, like, friends, family, a lot of, like, my mechanics engineers from racing,
like, basically, a lot of support around me in hospital,
and basically, if you put enough people that love motor racing and motor sport in a room together,
eventually you're going to talk about motor racing, even though at the time it was obviously potentially, like,
a touchy subject because of the, you know, the injuries that had occurred from me racing.
But actually, I just started talking about racing and stuff with my mechanics engineers
that were coming to see me in hospital.
And then we started talking about, like, an Alex and Aldi, for example,
and how he lost both his legs in an IndyCar crash.
They went back to racing, so it was, like, just sort of sparked a bit of curiosity at me really of,
oh, okay, I wonder whether, potentially, I could go back to racing,
and it was as simple as that at first, and then sort of went from there.
And that you did because it was 11 days right before you were back in a car.
Is that right?
Well, yeah, it was around, no, 11 weeks.
11 weeks.
11 weeks.
Yeah, so it was 11 weeks after my accident that I basically got my racing license back at Brandtatt.
So that was in a sort of VWB tool that was converted with hand controls
through a team called Team Brit who basically support military,
servicemen and veterans after, you know, if they have injuries
or just getting them integrated back into the workplace through motorsport,
that's their whole mission.
And they'd obviously come up with these controls for other soldiers that were missing limbs
and having to use hand controls.
And they basically asked me if I wanted to come down to Brandtatt,
but I'm buying a little of a car, and then it was sort of, you know,
racking at first and very different to what I was used to.
But over time, sort of, by the end of the day, I was sort of feeling more confident.
And then an instructor was at the track the same day as me.
He wasn't planned for me to get my license back and said,
oh, if you want, I can just follow you around in another car
and we can sort of assess your ability to still drive.
And I basically left them in my dust and I went, yeah,
I think you can have your license back based off of that.
So it was kind of, yeah, a weirdly simple process to get my license back.
But then to actually compete, there was a few more bits in between.
When you're like a top level athlete or you've been doing any sport,
even if you start football at seven and you're still doing it at 14,
you become so confident with kicking the football with pushing the accelerator.
If you're in a trade, you become so confident with hitting the hammers.
How alien did those controls feel to you at first?
And can you just kind of explain to people that have no idea
the difference between obviously traditional two, three pedals and a wheel, paddles,
and what you ended up going to, how do they work?
Yeah, definitely. It was very alien to me, the controls,
because particularly with the controls when I arrived on that day with Team Brit,
I hadn't seen those controls before.
So effectively, I turned up, they basically took the steering wheel for a car
and showed me basically the layout, throttle, paddle on this side,
braking, paddle on this side, gears here, clutch here.
So it was kind of like, you know, just me looking at it like,
it's almost like looking at a remote control for like a gaming console.
Is that how you pictured it, like an Xbox control?
Yeah, effectively. It's like this, you know, steering wheel,
but all of a sudden it had all these attachments and sort of, you know,
levers to pull and stuff like that.
And I was like trying to get my head around it.
And then I think that day was really important for me
from the longer term sort of aspects of my journey,
because I basically went away from there
and went back into sort of single-seater racing.
And that was obviously building a car just for me.
And I kind of like took some points of the controls from that that I liked.
But then also at that point, I was planning on breaking with my leg,
my right leg, where I still have my knee,
where I can still modulate a pedal.
So I had like sort of ideas of things,
I think we could, how we could improve it
plus weight things on that sort of system that I quite liked.
And in the end, the sort of system that we came up with
was I had a lever behind the steering wheel on the left
that I would sort of use my index finger and middle finger to pull
and that was the throttle lever.
On my right hand, we had the gears.
So top, again, index finger was to shift up gears,
middle finger to shift down.
And now I broke with my right leg.
And then I had a hand clutch mounted on the side of the cockpit
for launching off the line.
And how quick did that stuff become the feeling
of the footballer I describe or the carpenter?
Become normal.
The muscle memory does come actually pretty quickly, I would say.
At least to like a very, very close point.
So I'd probably say I was doing lots of days on the simulator,
so it's hard to put an exact number to it,
but I probably did 15, 20 days in the simulator
sort of developing the controls.
And then the controls at that point were probably fairly,
you know, the muscle memory was already starting to build
just through reps and just time spent on the sim
during each of those days.
But I guess the trickier part
and the part that I couldn't really develop
until I was competing properly again was...
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Saying that out loud is crazy. That is huge.
But all the cool opportunities could pull us apart.
It's causing issues in everyone's marriage.
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It's chaos.
With the controls, when everything was going well,
they were very good.
But in a racing environment where potentially
you have to avoid someone who's spun off
or, you know, if you make a mistake
and you have to catch a big oversteer moment,
those were the moments, actually, that the controls...
They were where the muscle memory was probably lacking.
So I remember on my first few race weekends,
when it was going well, I felt really in tune with the car
and at one, but when I was even making mistakes
or avoiding incidents and sometimes
those sort of things are out of your control,
that's where the controls I could feel like,
yeah, this is, I'm actually having to really think about this
and I'm experiencing these sort of things happening
for the first time, rather than, you know,
it being stuff that I've done a million times.
Could you have pictured yourself pre-incident?
Let's go up to 17 years old.
Ever presenting for the likes of Channel 4 for the Formula 1?
Yeah, definitely not.
It was not something that I envisaged for myself whatsoever.
I was a racing driver.
I competed in motorsport and wanted to be in Formula 1.
That was the goal from probably about the age of 10 or 11.
I started go-kiting when I was 6,
but I won my first British Championship when I was 10
and I think at that point I was like,
okay, maybe this can be, this isn't just a hobby,
this is like, this could be a career
and potentially I could, you know, make it to Formula 1
and be, you know, like as successful as a Lewis Hamilton
or a Jensen, but that was kind of default process.
So when you're kind of solely focused on that,
you don't really open yourself up to these other sort of
career paths or opportunities.
Were you the type of character that could have done it?
Or as much, because I've heard you say so many times
and I understand why.
You know, the Billy before is the same as Billy after.
But is there some elements of you that have changed?
Like, could the Billy before have put yourself on camera?
Like, did you have the personality characteristics to do that?
Or afterwards, have you learned to be a certain way
and be different to deal with the opportunities?
Yeah, I think fundamentally you're right.
I do view myself as the same person,
but it doesn't mean that there weren't learnings
and moments of growth that came from my accident
and probably, you know, a bit of wisdom and life experience
that sort of came through, sort of overcoming trauma
and realizing potentially how short life can be,
you know, how you want to make the most of every opportunity.
I do think that there were some learnings that came from that
that make me more well suited to being a better presenter
than basically if I'd been on camera before.
The only time I'd been on camera before my accident
was like in sort of post-race interviews
if I'd been on like the podium
and I'd be talking about how the race went for me
and it was all sort of self-focused
well then to then be a presenter
and to be asked on the other side of the camera
asking the questions to the drivers.
I think it helps that I've kind of, you know,
maybe got a bit more experience in life
and I can kind of, yeah, total line a bit more.
In what way? Just to elaborate on that a little bit.
I think, yeah, I just realized through my accident
just how important it is to have good people around you
and I think when I was just answering questions in interviews
you kind of, you know, you get a question, you give your answer
it's kind of quite a simple job from that aspect
so you're just answering what you're being told
but I think when you're the person asking the questions
I think there's more on it where it's like you want to, you know,
you want to come across as likeable
you want to ask questions that are going to bring the best out of that individual
so it becomes more important to have good people skills
and I think my accident gave me good people skills
because I almost effectively had to build a bit of a team around me
in order to sort of operate and work well with my physios, my doctors
with my mechanics and engineers when we were building the hand control
so I think I naturally became a more comfortable
sort of getting my ideas across and speaking to people
in my communication skills overall
which I think helped when you were presenting.
Yeah, dealing with people.
That's the thing, you learn to deal with people
and I think what's unique about your story
is you learn to deal with looking after people
that have usually looked after you.
Yeah, what I mean by that is I know the story
about how your dad bought your first car at two years old
and you can even get in it until you were six, et cetera
but you spoke or another podcast to listen to a little while ago
about your mother at the time of your accident
and how obviously devastated she was
and what had happened
and it's almost like you spoke as if you were coaching your mum on how to get through it
but from the person that it's happened to
you're like, okay, mum, right, let's get some counselling here
don't worry about me, you can do this, you need to think of this.
Have you always been that way
or is that something that comes from it as well?
The ability to kind of just take control
and manage everybody around it?
I think it was probably more the accident itself
that sort of made me that sort of way
because I think people I was seeing on a day-to-day basis
how people were looking after me
so then you want to also be there for other people.
I think it was more that
I could kind of feel everyone coming around me
and supporting me when I needed it most
so then when I could see that the people around me
were maybe struggling themselves
I was probably just maybe a little bit more aware
and kind of tried to as much as I could
give them the space to be able to do that
and let them know that I'm okay, I'm doing okay myself
you don't have to just think about me
you need to obviously think about yourself
and how this has affected you
because it doesn't just affect me
and everyone else is fine
it affected everyone around me
but they still made the effort to push through that fact
and help
so I think it was more just my way of giving back
and kind of like making sure that
I wasn't just sort of taking all this help in
but without trying to give a bit of help back
even if it wasn't necessarily advice
but just kind of giving them the mental space
just by saying like I'm okay
like you don't have to worry about me
to level you are right now
just take a bit of time and look after yourself a bit
as an athlete, someone that gets stuck in
gritted teeth a lot
do you get really frustrated with people being overly
soft and all can I help you, can I do this
can I do that, do all of you learn to just absorb it
or does it really hurt you
definitely asked my accent, I remember
my mum like wanting when I was in a wheelchair
to like push me around everywhere
and me being like I've got this, I've got this
and like just wanting to do it all myself
and I think it was important
in a way that I did do that
because it showed that I could still be independent
or that I still wanted that independence
because I think if I'd sort of let them sort of
do everything for me
then maybe they would have just assumed
that that's the role they had to play for the rest of my life
so I think it was important in a way that I just kind of like
took ownership of the situation
and tried to do as much as possible without
people's help and support
but I think over time
you have to learn to sort of
like allow other people around you
to help you when you need it as well
so it's a bit of a balancing act
I think it was important in that moment
but I think over time I've sort of realised that
you know I can't do everything
that I need to do in my life
like myself like you need to have the ability
to sort of delegate and to trust people
to you know be able to help you out
if they've got the skill set to do that
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can you take me up to the
point of having that moment
in terms of racing because you mentioned something
that annoyingly
I know so many people overlook the things
before that moment
that must really frustrate you
so just tell us about it, tell us how you got
in that seat at that moment
on that particular grid, the things you'd won
and how you got there because I know that
I've spoken to Karun Chan on the podcast
I've spoken to how difficult
self-funded racing is and getting to that point
so talk us through it
yeah it's massive in motorsport
I mean my family are working class
like when we started
it was just something for me
my dad to do for fun
and my dad just loved like tinking around with cars
and their go-karts and stuff like that
and then quite quickly by the time I was probably
like 10-11 winning British championships
it was like not only did I start to view it
as something different but in general
the more money is involved
in the sport at that time
and it does become more serious
like we still had a lot of fun
don't get me wrong but it's like
this isn't just something that we can kind of
do and not really
put much effort into if we're going to continue
on the rate of development
that we're going on and with the amount of resources
that are going to be need to pour into it
like you have to want to do it
and really want to give your all
so that was kind of
it was tricky in ways because
there's a lot of responsibility for a kid
to basically at that point
you're kind of in the
headspace of I need to be all in on this
or not and you know I was sort of making
that decision at like 12-13 of
do I want to make this my career go
all in or do I want to
be a kid and sort of you know just kind
of be like trying lots
of other things and not be so like
focused on one thing but for me
I didn't want anything else I hadn't tried
I tried lots of other sports when I was younger
and stuff like that and nothing had come close
to motor sport for me so
I just wanted to keep doing that
thing that I loved so much
Which is strange really because now you have the
complete opposite right? Yeah.
You're open to pretty much all sports so it shows
that there is like change before and after
Yeah I think
racing for me like my relationship
with racing
and like Covid as a sort of
period of time that kind of
was the thing more than anything that sort of halted
my racing career because I obviously went back to
racing after my accident and
effectively at that point you know the
sort of figures we're talking about
you know humongous like you know over half
a million pounds a year for a season and
the championships I was racing in and
to sort of fund that
sort of through sponsorship alone
and then when Covid came about that sponsorship
to disappear to then
re-find that sort of money
was basically where the
stumbling blocks came in
which is a shame
and obviously
you know like most people that
you know don't quite achieve
their ultimate ambitions like there's always
going to be probably part of me and it goes
oh like I wonder
whether I did have the opportunity to keep going
whether I would have been able to make it
to F1 but
equally then these new opportunities
and other avenues of my life
sort of opened up whether that's in the media
space whether that's
these comic relief charity
sort of challenges and then
obviously the Iron Man world record
and bits and pieces and these other sports
I think it kind of
taught me to be open to
you know one door closes that doesn't
mean that that's your only door and you can't
go through another so probably it taught
my accident taught me to be quite adaptable
I guess you could say.
When the door in your head closed
for Formula One which one
open what was the next Formula One was it
the Iron Man?
Probably say at the time because we're talking sort of
Covid time I was still
like my main sort of job and
career path at the time was then in the media
space in Formula One so I was presenting
and sort of being a pundit on the Channel 4
show
and I was getting asked back for more
and more races each year
so at the time it kind of felt like
okay well I've sort of this keeps
me in motorsport
and even though at the time I wasn't
racing myself
it wasn't that I necessarily closed the door on
Formula One but it felt like okay well I
haven't got the money to race right now so what's
the next best thing it's being involved
in the sport and it's being in the F1
paddock where all of the big bosses
and all of the people that make the decisions
realistically on the people that make it
into Formula One themselves
that's where they are and so I still
felt like I was front and centre
and in people's minds so I thought
if I'm going to get any opportunities
with not having the money to actually be
driving myself it's going to be by
impressing and being around
those sorts of people where they think
Billy was on a good trajectory
and okay it stops but
maybe he's worth taking a punt with
a new sort of racing program we're developing
How does that
actually visually look
in the paddock?
To say you're there, you're doing your work
you're being a pundit over the course of the weekend
are you looking out for those individuals that
make comments like Toto did of
you have a moment in your earliest years
that defines you and you either get through
it or you don't, are you looking out to be like
have you got time for a coffee?
How do you still try to materialise that
into something in an environment like the paddock?
Yeah I think for me
when I got into the paddock in the media
since it was 2019 so I was
19, 20 years old.
Then you had to put masks on.
Yeah me had to put masks on social distancing
so those few years it kind of did feel
like not wasted years
from that sort of
we couldn't really communicate to
I couldn't go and grab a coffee
with a Toto wolf or something like that so easily
because everyone was kind of social distancing
and everything like that so it was trickier
in those moments
more than anything rather than
actively seeking out every individual
in the paddock because everyone there
has got jobs to do, they've got busy schedules
I think it was more
just being in those places and then
if those conversations did start
you did see those individuals
just
being a person, a likeable person
expressing my dreams
my ambitions, my goals
but not doing it in a forceful way
I think you sometimes see people come into the paddock
and they basically
you can tell that they're just after one thing
and what they're just going to have on those individuals
Do they stand out as well?
I think
there's so many successful people in that paddock
and don't get me wrong I don't think it's
necessarily, maybe that approach
is the way to go
but for me I've always been of
the opinion that I'm fundamentally
the first thing, I was there to do a job
so I'm there to be a presenter
and a ponder and if I do that
well enough people will
grow to see me on a more regular
basis and I'll be
in sort of that ecosystem
I'll be integrated into it
so then those conversations are easier to have
Because I'm writing and saying
is Anthony Davison now
a reserve?
Yeah, he's been working with Mercedes
for a long time in the
sim sort of side of things
like doing all their development and bits and pieces
that's something that he sort of naturally
progressed into off the back
of his sort of endurance career coming to an end
with all the years of experience he had
so he juggles the two
he has involvement with Mercedes
in the simulator and development programs
but also he's a pundit for
SkyF1 so
it kind of goes to show
that you can end up with multiple
roles within the sport
whilst you know
doing multiple things at the same time
so that was I guess my ambition and my thoughts
with it was if I'm here long enough
and I'm really part of the ecosystem of Formula One
and I get to know these people
then one conversation
could lead to another
one phone call
why don't we speak to this person
in terms of the sponsorship
in terms of opportunity for a seat
and who knows what could come from it
so that's kind of been my approach
with it. How did you get
onto the grid to present for the first time
in a pundit role?
What was the phone call for that and when was it?
Yeah it was a
a random sort of call up
to be honest because
it came from a producer
who worked in Formula One
basically watching me on the BBC Sports
Personality of the Year back in 2018
so I won the Helen Rollison Award
and I had to go up and do a speech
it was like a live show
in front of thousands of people
and I delivered half my speech and I took a pause
and took too long of a pause
and got cut off by the presenters
like they just thought
that was the end of my speech and sort of moved on
and people at home basically could see
that I had more to say but I was just
you know sort of taking a brief moment
and it's live TV
so that sort of stuff happens
and next thing you know
they were like half way through the show
like after a few more things had happened
they were like oh we're going to come back to you
and let you finish your speech if you'd like
because we could see and we've had people at home
saying that they thought you had more to say
so they came back to me
I finished my speech and basically based off that
speech and sort of my sort of communication
and sort of involvement in my sport
one of the producers thought that
I potentially he could be a good fit
on screen and
like that Formula One world
he loves the sport, he knows a lot about it
and he seemed to do a
part from getting cut off a pretty decent job of his speech
so they approached me
and asked me if I wanted to be part of Channel 4's
F1 coverage and I said no
initially
because I was so focused on
racing and driving myself around
in their rear that I thought
well you know I don't want people to
sort of have any confusion that I
want to be in Formula One myself
I don't necessarily want to be
a presenter of Formula One
but I wanted to be the driver
so at first I was pretty cautious
about basically blurring those lines a little bit
but then I spoke to my family
friends and sort of like the team around me
and they sort of
made me realise that
actually okay you are racing right now
and sponsorship is there but that's no
guarantee that it will always be there
and actually being again in those
environments in front of the people that
you know potentially can offer you
sponsorship deals, make you part of their
academy and really help you get
those last few steps from Formula
3 into the
Formula 3 that runs on the F1 weekends and then
Formula 2 into Formula 1
like you need those individuals on board
so they kind of said
and explained it to me in that way and I kind of thought
okay yeah I can balance that too
Individuals, good ones are often
good with pieces of advice as well
and I know an individual that I could mention
so many because you've had so many amazing
cool moments of people that supported you
Lewis Hamilton for one, name drop
but I really really connected
with the story of Johnny Herbert
and how he come to visit you
can you just tell that a little bit
Yeah, Johnny is an amazing character
an amazing guy and
he obviously had a big accident
in racing himself at Brandtatch, he had an accident
ended up crashing
like his car or being involved
in an accident and basically really
badly damaged his ankles
and his feet to the point where
he wasn't sure that amputation
would have potentially been something
that was talked about with him
he obviously didn't
end up having his legs and
feet amputated and was able to
go through a recovery process and then get back
to racing in Formula 1 but
he basically still
at some points in time
has pain in his feet
and ankles as a result
of that accident and how severe it was
even all these years later
so yeah for whatever
reason Johnny decided because of my accident
and me having my legs amputated
maybe it resonated with him but
he basically asked me to come and see me in hospital
so he was one of the first people to come and see me
and yeah seeing Johnny Herbert
Formula 1 Grand Prix winner
to basically come and
say hello and sort of give his time
like honestly it really did
mean a lot
and yeah
like I said I felt the support
of the homemade sport community but
definitely that moment will stick with me
Did he tell you there and then to get back in a car
as fast as possible?
No he didn't actually no he didn't really
give any advice in terms of getting back into a car
when he saw me I was like
at such an early stage that I was in hospital
for about five weeks
and I can't remember how early on it was
but it was definitely within probably the first week
or two that Johnny came to see me so
effectively it was more a process of
like just getting
getting good
getting back to
being able to sort of
digest a bit of what had actually happened to me
so it was still really early stages
so he was more there for some moral support
to sort of cheer me up
like to just come and sort of
spend some time with me and my family and just
be there for me
rather than try and give me
loads of advice
and that kind of
in a way probably meant more
because at that stage I probably wasn't ready
for that much advice
or I was like oh you should get back in a car
it was kind of like I just wanted and needed
people that had
my best interests at heart to kind of just
be around me and be like
you've got this mate you'll be okay
like this happened to me
I still able to do all these
things that I'm sure you will be able to too
For the people that
look at the crashes oh we had a very high
speed crash but don't necessarily know
the detail of it because you're in a
Formula 4 car and
some people go Formula car like they don't think
about the different classes and how they're put
together and how they're built
if that were in an F1 car
would there have been any differences of result
like in terms of the way they're engineered
good question
I think it's
in my hypotheticals
I don't really know obviously because
I was in Formula 1 I've been
potentially driving
I would have been even faster
so I had the impact to hit a stationary car
when I was doing 120 if I was driving an F1
I would have been doing 160
The reason I asked sorry to throw is because
I was up on my kitchen counter
my iPad being rushed out the door
a few years ago
when Grojan hit the barrier
and I just remember just going there's no way
like everybody
there's no way and then you see him getting out
just kind of doing that
he's got some hot hands you must be like
how was he managed to do that
that's why I asked because
it seems to me that these F1 cars
can just get away with so much
maybe some of the others and are the others
up to speed to where they should be
I think fundamentally the way motorcycle works
is that Formula 1 is the pioneer
when it comes to all sorts of technologies
whether that's the performance
based technologies whether that's for
safety based technologies
and then it sort of
drips slowly down into the junior
categories and gets implemented
like the Halo for example that was a Formula 1
introduction and then quite quickly in the next few years
that got spread into all the junior
single seater classes
so it gets tested out at the highest level
at Formula 1 and if Formula 1
can withstand and benefit a Formula 1 car
then they think okay well then
obviously it can benefit Formula 2
Formula 3, Formula 4
so I think you'd probably
say that Formula 1 is safer
than any other sort of
single seater championship in the world
from that aspect but
once all those once all that technology
is sort of drip fed down into
Formula 3, Formula 2, Formula 1
or yeah Formula 2, 3 and 4
sorry
at that point
realistically I think probably you'd say the slower categories
which are Formula 4, 3 and 2
are potentially safer than Formula 1
because there's less risk attached bridge not going as fast
so it's all hypothetical really
but yeah Formula 1 pioneers
and sort of advances those technologies
if you're enjoying this episode
please like and subscribe
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but you were going quick
120 miles an hour
can you take us through the last
thing that you potentially remember
to then yeah the next memory
yeah so the last thing I remember is basically
driving up the crest of a hill
at Dunnington Park with two cars
side by side in front of me
last minute they both dive either side
and I'm presented with this stationery car
and I hit the back of this stationery car
and I was awake for about
45 minutes in the cockpit
before I was put into an induced coma
so I sort of remember everything
sort of coming to a pause
I remember the driver that I hit
he was sort of screaming in the cockpit
so then the doctors initially came over to me
the adrenaline's like so much
that I basically said I'm fine
like go and look after him
I was almost ready to undo my belts
jump out obviously
that wasn't the case
and sort of the adrenaline starts to wear
off obviously your body like
subconsciously like I obviously didn't try
to get out of the car so you kind of
like okay so I'm not
quite sure what's going on there like
my legs were sort of like more
sort of bent up towards me
a little bit I guess you could say but this
single seat car has got a really tight cockpit
around your sort of like
you can't really see below your sort of fire
area because it's all quite snug
and narrow and you're sort of quite in
position of how you drive and then with
overalls on and overalls and everything
like that so I couldn't really see
what was going on
down like down below so it's not like
I looked down and I saw
lard or whatever like I didn't
have that sort of experience I kind of just
looked down couldn't really see that much
but my right knee was sort of
more bent up towards my chest
so I was like okay you know like
there's obviously been a frontal impact but
I didn't really tell
how bad it was and then
adrenaline starts to wear off I start
to sort of be a little bit more uncomfortable
a bit more agitated but quite quickly the doctors
doctors were there paying
medication and then obviously trying to
work out how to extract me out of the car
and how did they manage
to do that so effectively that's why
one of the reasons why anyway that
they had to put me into the induced coma
so my car because I'd hit a stationary
car at 120 had basically
the gearbox of
the car in front had basically penetrated
the front of the cockpit
and effectively my car
had sort of gone into
the gearbox and engine
and sort of part of the car which is where the damage
sort of crept into obviously
my legs was the fact that that had come
into the cockpit so
in terms of getting me out the car
they at first
they were trying to cut the carbon fiber sort of
down like above my legs
trying to cut that panel out
but the carbon fiber is so strong in itself
that the tools that they had basically meant
that trying to cut away the carbon
fiber and everything like that especially when they couldn't
quite see where my legs were positioned so they
didn't want to cut through and do any damage
to me. There's little things like that
that does actually genuinely make your question
like they don't have the tools to cut through
carbon fiber you know on a
race day with cars that
clearly could crash into each other
some things do make you think about
everything in depth you think there's all these
ambulances and safety people that are like
your safety nets around you but
you really are on your own when it comes to being in a
racing car. Yeah I think
yeah I don't think they ever
can potentially anticipate
for what they may need
what they may need I think more
it wasn't necessarily I couldn't cut
through the carbon fiber it was that
they didn't know quite where my legs were
positioned under it so they didn't want to cut
through and actually do more damage sort
of thing so they basically realized
that the only way to get me out of the car was to
effectively pull the cars apart so take
like the car in front
of mine and sort of drag that forward
and out of my car
but they were worried about the risks attached
to it for me to still be obviously awake
for that because they didn't again they
couldn't see the extent of damage so
that's why they decided I believe
to put me into the induced coma so they could
then pull the cars apart and then
extract me out through the top
of the cockpit. And were your
parents at the track that day? Yeah
mum and dad were at the track and my sister
Bonnie was there as well so
they asked if anyone wanted
to come on to the track
just after the accident to sort of be with
me and my mum was obviously a bit
she was very distraught and sort of
like shocked about the whole thing
so my dad decided he was
going to sort of stay with her
when they first heard
from the doctors about what was going on
they sort of the doctors initially said they thought
I'd broken both my legs so that was the
sort of information they had so
my sister decided to come out in the medical
car to the
incident and she sort of sat next to the
cockpit with me and sort of
like was just saying it was going to be okay
and this that and the other and then they put
me into the coma, extracted me
and then my sister joined my mum and dad and
they basically got in the car and
basically dashed it to
the local hospital where I was going
and what about the lad in front
of you? Who was he and
what happened? Yeah so he was Patrick
Pazma so he's a Finnish driver
and
he went into hospital as well I believe he
had fractured a vertebrae
so it was
something that fortunately for him
held up you know within probably
a few weeks to a month
so he was back racing
I believe he might
have had one weekend off from the
racing and then he was back for the
fourth round of the championship so
again it was just one of those wrong
place wrong time moments where yeah he
obviously didn't intentionally spin off
and end up on the racing line
you know so
for him it was just he'd made a mistake
at a tricky part of the circuit and I
arrived behind him with
no vision that he was there
wrong place wrong time
one of the
parts of unpacking people's heads on this
podcast is like unpacking mental
strength yeah it's without mental strength
you haven't been able to do so many of the
things that you've done yeah was
the toughest piece of mental strength
the moment you woke up
um
good question
I'm not sure not sure I think
it definitely required a lot of mental strength
and it was definitely a shock and probably
for a while
I was sort of going through the motions
of you know going you know
being in hospital
and then sort of coming out of hospital
going home and sort of you know
my dad had sort of converted the house
so they're downstairs I could sort of
my bedroom was down downstairs and upstairs
and he'd put some ramps in here and there
so
the whole first few months really
was a bit of a blur like the whole thing
and they definitely were highs and lows
and times where I was a bit like why me
and times where I was kind of
like right I need to just get on with this
so I think it would be hard for me to say
that that wasn't the moment
probably that required the most mental
strength what was the first
big like lift the trophy up moment
afterwards though like the next the next
peak next peak
probably lifting
a trophy up at Alton Park for
my first race back that was 11
months after my accident
and
yeah maybe that all
potentially the time I first got back
behind the wheel of a proper single-seater racing car
because at that point
I'd sort of started to work with
Carl and the team that were sort of
helping me get back into racing
they'd sort of started
initially just letting me use their simulator
because I would come to the factory with my
mate Jamie who was racing for them in
British F4 for that
that season he won the championship that year
so I was more just to get me out the house
when I was doing my rehab I'd go
with him to the factory watch him on the sim
then they came a lot then they basically
said I want to get on the simulator yourself
and we'll just convert
the two gear like paddles
into a throttle and brake and you could just try
and that was like fine
and it was actually a lot faster
I think that everyone was expecting even with these
sort of like botched up paddles
and then it became okay
well why don't we actually make some hand controls
and then my leg had started to heal
enough where I could start to
push against the brake pedal a bit more
and quite quickly like within
a space of like four or five bumps
it was like okay you can drive on the simulator
we've made some sort of like
basic controls and you're fast
like if you want to race again
we need to obviously think about
the next set which is like putting this into a
practical real life
version of these controls so they started
building me some hand controls for a car
talking with the FIA which is the
governing body about all their sort of
safety measures and concerns
and I think it was
I want to say it was
in the January of 2018
when my accident was April 2017
that I've got back behind the wheel
of a single seat car again
and I remember that day just being like
smiling ear to ear
like it was just like
it just felt like a surreal moment
and just have like my mum and dad there
and they were just like
what were they like?
Mum was a nervous wreck
dad was chuffed I think he could see how
happy I was and he could see me back in
a racing car and I think at that point
you know they've start to believe that
this is like possible
here we go again
yeah here we go again
which I think my dad was
pleased about my mum probably less
Up until that moment
what was the toughest thing that
happened in your life?
Good question
I think
a lot of people ask me like
where my resilience comes from
I think it's mainly
probably from my mum and dad
because I saw how hard they worked
for years and years to basically give me
the opportunities that I had
even to get me to F4 took so much
sacrifice so many long hours
they're the two most hardworking
people I've ever met like
my mum's a makeup artist and she's
in the film industry
they're basically the first one there
the first ones there and the last ones to leave
and she would be leaving home at
five in the morning and getting back at
8.39pm and basically going straight
to bed and
like just seeing that sort of work ethic
I think sort of then
when I did get opportunities to do stuff
I knew that I had to try to make
the most of it because there was so much
sacrifice going in and I think
just being sort of in
that multiple world from a young age like
you naturally
sort of craft a bit of resilience
like because
like you have to make sacrifices along
the way you have to decide to
you know to train or to
practice or you have to do your homework
in the back of your camper van
when you're driving to a race so that you can take
the time off school so you can compete at the highest level
I think like they're rather than like
one big you know moment
that made me sort of like
resilient or sort of mentally strong
it was more like a bit of a culmination
of lots of sort of
factors of you know
environment with seeing my parents working
so hard and then just the
world and the sort of dream that I had
and just chipping away down a day to day
basis that kind of
gave me enough mental strength
when the time came to deal with
a big moment like that
When you've set world records
when you've done the impossible
what is next? What's the next bit
that gets the fuel going?
Yeah I think
I think I never want to be the person
who when I'm on
sort of when I'm a bit older and later in
life it has loads of regrets
I think if I hadn't done anything after my accident
I knew what my life was going to look like
I knew that I would probably be full of regret of
and asking those what if
questions so I
don't want to leave sort of any stone unturned
and be asking I don't want to
even give myself the capacity to go
what if this, what if that when I'm older
It was scary getting back
in a racing car but looking back
it was so much scarier if you did
Yeah exactly that
if I hadn't got back to racing I think
potentially that is
just mentally a really
daunting prospect because my passions
in my life would have felt really
snatched away from me I at least wanted to try
and I think that's kind of
basically been my mindset since my accident
with most of the things that I've done
at least if you are going to do something
give it your best effort
if it's not meant for you if it's not meant to be
it's not meant to be but I'd rather be the person
who tries and gets
the answers that they're looking for
and knows that that is the actual
that is the answer you're always going to get
because you know this you've done
your absolute most rather than
be the person who gets an answer
but actually hasn't tried so
they really don't know how much they can even
believe in the answer they've got
well Billy
I know we're under a little bit of time pressure for you
watching today there's a few other things going on
in crazy London here thank you so
much for your time it's been amazing to
just scratch the surface level of the stuff
that goes on inside your head and how
you've turned such an impactful
horrific incident into something
so incredibly
imaginably amazing
thank you Billy thank you so much for coming on
Road to Success and for everybody watching
and listening we'll see you in another one
next time
About this episode
Billy Monger opens up about the crash that left him a double amputee and the fast, determined road back to racing. He explains how support from family, engineers and Team Brit helped him rediscover motorsport, adapt to hand controls, and rebuild confidence through simulator work and testing. The conversation also touches on his shift into media, the mental challenge of reliving the accident, and how he’s turned a life-changing setback into new athletic and personal goals.
Original notes
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Billy Monger’s story is one of the most powerful comebacks in sport.At just 17 years old, Billy was a rising racing driver competing in British Formula 4 when a high-speed crash at 120mph changed his life forever. The accident led to the amputation of both of his legs — but what followed was something few people thought possible.
In this episode of Ride to Success, Billy shares the raw reality behind the headlines. From waking up in hospital and rebuilding his life, to returning to racing, setting world-class endurance challenges, and becoming a Formula 1 presenter.
This conversation goes far beyond the crash. We explore the mindset that allowed Billy to rebuild his career, the pressure of motorsport funding, how he returned to the track just 11 months after losing his legs, and why he refuses to live with “what ifs”.
Billy also reveals the moment he first believed racing was still possible, the incredible support he received from the motorsport world, and how a live speech at BBC Sports Personality of the Year unexpectedly opened the door to a career in Formula 1 broadcasting.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more exciting content about your favourite shows and celebrities. Hit the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest episodes
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