Schumacher lost control of his Haas F1 car as he drove through the pool chicane after switching to dry tires during the Monaco Grand Prix, sending him spinning.
After hitting the Armco on the right side of the track, Schumacher’s car crashed into the Tecpro barrier on the exit of the corner. The rear of his Haas F1 car broke away from the rest of the chassis, including the suspension and gearbox, but Schumacher himself was quick to report that he was fine.
Schumacher got out of the car unaided and was taken to the medical center as a precaution before being quickly cleared and released. He later explained that the accident was “super weird”.
Race director Eduardo Freitas initially requested a virtual safety car before moving to a full safety car. The race was then red flagged to allow the barriers to be repaired.
A number of drivers expressed shock at seeing the crash site after the race. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly said it looked “bad” and he was worried about Schumacher, making it the right move to raise a red flag.
“When I saw the gearbox completely out, it was quite shocking,” Gasly said. “For the red flag they took a while but it was the right thing to do. I was a little surprised we got VSC and not a safety car straight away. But I have to review the race , it was long enough, enough a lot happened.”
Mick Schumacher, Haas VF-22 crash
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso called the crash “massive” and said he hoped F1 could “learn something from today”, noting how the cars’ increased weight is impacting the accidents.
“I don’t think it’s a car problem, it’s just how hard you hit,” Alonso said.
“With these cars they are very heavy, more than 800 kg, so the inertia in the wall is much higher than in the past. Like I said, we probably learned something from today too .”
Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel was a mentor to Schumacher for much of the young German’s career, having himself benefited from the advice given by Schumacher’s father, Michael.
Vettel said he was “happy to hear on the radio that he was fine before I got to the incident”, and called for Schumacher to be released.
“It’s so easy to get it wrong so quickly,” Vettel said. “I don’t know exactly what happened to him, I haven’t seen him. The main thing is that he’s fine
“There’s no doubt he’s capable of doing a lot more than he’s showing per minute. But I think you need to give him some breathing room.”