Mick Schumacher's violent accident during the first free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix angered the Haas team boss. Günther Steiner cannot hide his frustration about the crash and the costly consequences. Meanwhile, Schumacher fears no consequences for the talks about his future.
The first Formula 1 training session in Suzuka ends with a small debacle for Mick Schumacher. On the way to the pits, he crashes his Haas car violently. The 23-year-old is unharmed, but the car is badly damaged. This infuriates the team boss. "Again, half a million euros of scrap! In the last lap back to the pits, that simply must not happen," Günther Steiner railed against "F1TV". It is not the first time that Steiner has publicly counted his drivers: after Schumacher's accidents in Saudi Arabia and Monaco, the 64-year-old had already highlighted the consequences of the accident - in dollars.
Schumacher himself later explained his crash on the "Sky" microphone: "I saw very little and didn't see this puddle. [...] I didn't place the car where it should have been. Things like that happen." The 23-year-old had to do without the second training session. Particularly bitter: the accident happened on the way back to the pits. He ended the session in seventh place.
It is now perhaps the third time that Haas has had to replace the chassis after an accident with Mick Schumacher, Steiner said: "I say 'maybe' because we first have to X-ray the chassis to see if it's broken," grumbled he in conversation with "F1TV". The team has since confirmed that the chassis is indeed broken.
Steiner emphasized that Schumacher's departure was particularly frustrating because the German was actually only out on the track to practice a start to collect data for the start of the race on Sunday. "And then he crashes the car on the way to the pits. The whole front is destroyed," said the Haas team boss.
Schumacher tried again to clarify the departure: "As on the normal Autobahn: With such an aquaplaning moment, you don't do anything and you're just a passenger. We have to see that we can catch up tomorrow and have a good training session so that we can then be as high as possible in qualifying." Mick's uncle Ralf defended his nephew. Because of the aquaplaning, he simply had “no chance”, the former Formula 1 driver confessed to “Sky”.
Schumacher, meanwhile, doesn't believe his accident will affect talks about his future. "I would be surprised if that were a criterion for extending the contract. I mean, the performance is there." He also doesn't feel any more pressure after his rough departure from the track in training. "Pressure is something I've had to deal with for a long time, probably my whole life. It doesn't bother me and I always want to do my best," said the son of the legendary Michael Schumacher.
