The impact response of sandwich panels with an improved structure to increase their impact resistance is investigated herein. In order to compare the impact performance of sandwich structures, a specific and instrumented ball drop tester was designed and developed. Two different sandwich structures are analyzed: the first type is a classical structure composed by a glass fiber-polyester matrix-composite skin and a foam core. The second one, specifically developed in this research, consists of skins made from a glass fiber-phenolic matrix composite laminate and a core formed by an internal corrugated structure of the same laminate used for the faces filled by a phenolic foam. The latter structure was specifically designed to improve crashworthiness for transport applications.The main results of this study are evaluation of the absorbing energy performance of the sandwich structures, subjected to a single impact, and the development of criteria useful for materials selection. The corrugate sandwich panels have shown a better performance in terms of impact energy absorbing properties and strength respect to traditional sandwich structures.