Schumacher’s crash leaves Haas without spare chassis for Australia

Schumacher suffered a massive shunt during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah when he lost control of his Haas car after getting on the kerb at the exit the high-speed Turn 10 during the closing stages of Q2. 

The German was airlifted to hospital but did not suffer any injuries in the accident, though he did not take part in the grand prix itself after Haas elected to withdraw his car from the event. 

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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner estimated that the damage incurred in the 33G crash could end up costing the American outfit up to $1million. 

Speaking ahead of the returning Australian Grand Prix, Steiner confirmed Haas will not have the safety net of a back up chassis on hand for this weekend’s event in Melbourne. 

“The situation with spare parts is expected on race number two after a big crash,” he explained. “We have everything, but we have no abundance of spare parts. 

“The next question is how is the spare chassis? We haven’t got one because we have sent it back to Europe at the beginning of the week, so we’ll get it ready for Imola. 

“We had to bring it here because of custom formalities, it had to enter here and then it could be shipped back to Europe from here and it’s on its way back now.” 

Despite the lack of a spare chassis, Steiner insists it would not make sense to tell his drivers to approach the weekend differently to any other. 

“I think we cannot approach differently,” he said. “The drivers are aware of the situation that there is no spare chassis but that can happen sometimes. 

“I’m not too panicking and if something happens, we will deal with it as it comes along. 

“You cannot say ‘go out there and drive slowly’, that doesn’t make sense as well, just like ‘don’t take extra risks if you don’t have to’.” 

Schumacher ‘not feeling the pressure’ 

When asked how difficult it is for a driver to erase such an incident from their mind going into the next race, Schumacher replied: “Obviously you try your best not to crash but you also want to go as quick as you can. 

“We were on a good lap, we were on the final run of Q2 and to be able to get into Q3 you had to try something and we did. 

“The kerb was just too high for the car and we saw it with Fernando [Alonso] and also Esteban [Ocon], that it happened nearly for them, so I guess it’s something we will have to review.” 

And Schumacher played down any concerns about how a lack of spare parts could impact Haas’ weekend. 

“I think that everything is going to be just fine,” he insisted. “We’ll be quick hopefully and we for sure won’t need that spare one.” 

Schumacher has endured a difficult start to the season compared to new teammate Kevin Magnussen, whose starring drives to finish fifth in Bahrain and ninth in Saudi Arabia see Haas occupy fifth place in the constructors’ championship with 12 points. 

But the 23-year-old insists he is not feeling the pressure to perform, despite only managing a 12th-place finish so far after picking up damage to his car in Bahrain. 

“It’s great to have Kevin as a teammate,” Schumacher said. “He’s obviously been working with the team for a long time. He’s got a great bunch of experience in F1 throughout the years but also has experience of endurance racing. 

“He’s a very open teammate, someone I can work with and we can both benefit from each other. I just use that pressure as a motivator and try and do my best so we can push each other to do better.”

Schumacher added: "We always want to score points. We were close in Bahrain and that was after contact. 

“I think the expectations are high for being in the points this weekend and I’m sure we’ll get there.”