Ferrari Driver Academy member Mick Schumacher believes that he “signalled his intentions” ahead of the contact with the Mercedes of George Russell at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in the Singapore Grand Prix last Sunday.
The British driver, who could count on the much faster Mercedes, tried to pass the Haas of Mick Schumacher at Turn 1 midway through the race, but the two cars knocked tyres and due to the impact both had to make a pit-stop to change the tyres.
The Ferrari junior was on his way to a points finish, but as a result of this incident was relegated outside the top ten, having to settle for a P13 at the end of the Singapore Grand Prix, just ahead of George Russell.
While the Mercedes admitted that he was “not too sure what happened” at Turn 1, Mick Schumacher explained he did everything possible to clearly his intentions as the British driver attempted the overtaking move:
“I think that we all know George has quite a bit of a faster car under his feet,” Mick Schumacher said at the end of the Singapore Grand Prix – “In my view, I did signal my intentions of not wanting him to go by, because I felt like the conditions were too wet to try and overtake. I felt like I was on the dry line. He was trying to come back to the dry line but, obviously, that was taken by my car. Then we both had a puncture, or at least I had a puncture.” – the Ferrari junior.
The race stewards investigated the clash but considered no action was necessary. Asked to comment on the decision of not penalizing George Russell, the Haas driver continued: “I can’t judge on that. I’m not a steward. I haven’t seen it [from outside], so it’s hard for me to judge exactly. I just know what happened in the car. But obviously, I want to analyse it from the outside to make sure that I have the right answer.”
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The Ferrari junior, who is still negotiating with Haas for a seat on the 2023 Formula 1 grid, leaves the Marina Bay Street Circuit with the regret of missing out on another opportunity to score some important points: “I think points [were possible]. Obviously, the big killer was the pit-stop and strategy-wise, but nobody can predict something like this. Daniel [Ricciardo] got very lucky [after finishing P5 from P16 on the grid], and you see where he finished. So I think that, in that sense, P6 could have been possible if maybe we’d stayed out for one more lap.” – the Ferrari Driver Academy member concluded, as Mick is now focused on the Japanese Grand Prix, scheduled to take place next weekend.
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