Mick Schumacher: New pictures of the accident in Formula 1

Created: 03/30/2022, 15:15

By: Alexander Kaindl

Mick Schumacher was lucky in misfortune: the Formula 1 driver got off lightly in an accident in Saudi Arabia.

Now there are new pictures of the crash.

Jeddah – Mick Schumacher* experienced a Formula 1 weekend that he will not soon forget.

The son of record world champion Michael Schumacher crashed violently in qualifying in Jeddah and hit the wall at 250 km/h.

The 23-year-old also knows that accidents like this would have been fatal not too long ago.

Mick Schumacher: Serious accident at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia

Schumacher was correspondingly relieved even after the brutal impact: "Fortunately, the cars are so safe these days that I made it," he said afterwards.

He himself got away with the shock, even felt ready to get in the car and drive the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix the day after the accident.

There were strategic reasons why it didn't happen that way: "Extremely many" parts broke on his Haas, Schumi junior reported.

It was therefore damage limitation to be back in a working car in two weeks when Formula 1* starts in Melbourne.

New pictures of the accident have since surfaced.

They show the enormous forces that act on a pilot in such a collision.

The protective posture is also clearly visible: Schumacher immediately takes his hands off the steering wheel and tries to tense every muscle in his body to cushion the impact.

Every racing driver goes through this school.

Using them in an emergency is another thing - Schumacher managed to do it within milliseconds at the highest speed.

Formula 1: Mick Schumacher with a violent accident - high costs for Haas

How violent the forces are can be seen above all in Schumacher's head movements.

The pilots in the premier class (click here for the Formula 1 racing calendar) train their neck and neck muscles in an extreme way in order to be able to better absorb the strain in emergencies like these.

Another indication of how strong the impact was: Schumacher crashes the right side of his helmet against the inside of his car, the marks afterwards are clearly visible.

It is also clear that this accident was expensive.

Team boss Günther Steiner expects costs of up to one million dollars!

The South Tyrolean said at the race weekend: "I think the costs are quite high because the entire suspension is broken, except for the front left one.

I think there's something more to it.

The rest is just carbon powder.

I don't know what the cost is, but everything from the transmission to the entire body to the radiators is gone - I'd say $500,000 to a million."

Formula 1: Haas team boss Steiner after Schumacher crash - "Hope we won't have much more of it"

Accidents like Schumacher's are not only a danger to the life and limb of the respective driver - the crashes also hit the teams hard financially.

“There is a nominal amount, but in a racing team you can never stick to your budget like in a normal company because there is that risk.

Of course, you have a certain contingent available,” Steiner continued.

“If you have two or three incidents like this, the reserve is gone pretty quickly.

It's a loss to be prepared for.

Of course I hope that we won't have much more of it."

Nobody wants to see such crashes.

A marshal apparently did - he wished Lewis Hamilton an "accident like Grosjean".