Ferrari Driver Academy member Mick Schumacher revealed that he did not exit his Haas car sooner after the huge crash at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit because he was aware that other cars could also be running in that part of the track. The 23-year-old Ferrari junior suffered a huge high-speed shunt in the second part of the qualifying session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after he lost control of Haas VF-22 car and smashed into the concrete wall, with no barrier or padding in place at the area where he crashed.
The session was quickly red-flagged, as TV cameras did not broadcasting replays of the moment while awaiting news on the situation of the Ferrari junior. Fortunately, after medical personnel arrived, Mick Schumacher was able to get out of the car and was helped into the ambulance, with a hospital check giving him the all-clear.
Concern had grown for the young German driver as he continued to stay in the cockpit, but the Ferrari Driver Academy member has confirmed why he did that. While thankfully he did not suffer any physical damage from the big crash, he explained that he was wary of cars which may have been passing by: “I didn’t want to get out at first because I knew there would be a few more cars behind me” – Mick Schumacher said, as reported by Sport1.de – “Accordingly, I just checked to see if everything was all right.” – he continued.
Mick Schumacher remained in his highly damaged Haas car after the impact, but at the same time he was also not speaking on the team radio, which wfurther heightened concerns. Mick admitted that the tried to inform his team that he was ok, but the radio was not working, most likely due to the impact which damageed the system and thus broke the radio connection:
“Probably something was cut. I really wanted to say I was okay.” – the Ferrari junior added.
Mick Schumacher’s Haas car was almost completely damaged after the huge crash and it was a telling sign of the impact as the backend of the Haas fell off as the crane attempted to remove it from the circuit. Most importantly, the survival cell did its job, which once again show the high level of safety which these modern Formula 1 cars are able to offer. And incredibly, Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner has confirmed the chassis can be used again despite that almighty crash. However, Mick did not take part in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix mostly due to financial reasons, as the incident could cost Haas as much as $1 million to repair the car.
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“The chassis, there is damage to it but it’s not really big,” the Haas boss said, in a recent interview – “The rest of the car is broken, but not the chassis. Absolutely,” Steiner confirmed when asked if it would be used again. “I mean that chassis, the side-impact structures have to be changed. They did their job, they get destroyed by doing this. And otherwise there is one little notch on it which can be easily fixed.” – Guenther Steiner concluded.
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