‘But not him’: Ralf Schumacher gives verdict on Mick’s costly Monaco shunt

Mick Schumacher suffered another big accident last weekend in Monaco as he still goes in search of his first points.

Former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has been critical of his nephew Mick after the 23-year-old’s crash at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Schumacher was running outside the points in wet conditions when he started battling away with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, and he remained behind him when they eventually transitioned over to slick tyres.

As he traversed the swimming pool section though, he put a wheel onto a damp patch from the earlier downpour, and span straight into the barrier, before his momentum took him across the track and into another wall.

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The impact snapped the back of the car off, and necessitated another re-build job for the Haas team after the German also crashed heavily during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The cost to repair it will be coming out of Haas’ $140 million budget this year, so it was a very expensive error for the 2020 Formula 2 champion.

“The failure in the race was his fault, others drove past this point without any problems, but not him,” Schumacher explained.

“At first I thought he hit the guardrail and had a slow puncture but that was not the cause of the accident.

“He got onto the wet and that’s a mistake you can’t afford to make. That is punished mercilessly, as you have seen.

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“Not only was the whole race ruined, but a badly damaged car also has budgetary consequences for the team.”

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Haas boss Guenther Steiner said after the race that they will need to figure out “how to move forward” after more misery on Schumacher’s side of the garage, but Ralf is optimistic that his nephew will come good eventually.

“The Haas team must now find a way to turn everything back to zero, there have also been strong races,” he added.

“I hope that the team will also release some updates. You can drive the car fast, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with the pace of the others.

“In any case, something has to happen to make life easier for Mick. And Mick has to learn that such mistakes shouldn’t happen, no question about it.

“But in Formula 2, when he became champion in 2020, he proved that he can also master difficult phases in the course of a season.”

Schumacher’s latest accident ensured that he has now gone 29 race entries without scoring a single point after entering F1 last year.