‘The rest is just like powder’: Steiner reveals eyewatering cost of damage to Schumacher’s Haas

Mick Schumacher suffered a horrendous crash during qualifying for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Guenther Steiner estimates that Mick Schumacher’s crash during qualifying for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will cost the Haas team somewhere in the region of $500,000 to $1 million.

At the Jeddah Corniche Circuit that was described as “dangerous” by Max Verstappen, crashes had already taken place in 2022 at Turn 11 for Cem Bolukbasi and Theo Pourchaire, with the former ruled out of the rest of the Formula 2 weekend following Friday’s crash.

Schumacher then had a similar accident at the same corner, slamming into the same part of the barrier that the Turk had hit, causing extensive damage to the Haas car.

READ: Hamilton spotted checking on Mick Schumacher after horrific 170mph crash

The German himself said on Sunday that he felt fine to race but, had he been unable to do so, reserve Pietro Fittipaldi likely would have been unable to reserve, due to article 32.6 of the sporting regulations that dictates that the engine and gearbox assigned to Schumacher would have to be used by the Brazilian.

“If one of the Competitor’s nominated drivers is unable to drive at some stage after the end of initial scrutineering, and the stewards consent to a change of driver, the replacement driver must use the engine, gearbox and tyres which were allocated to the original driver,” it reads.

However, Steiner confirms that the engine and the chassis are all that survived the scary accident, and the rest of the car was irreparably damaged

“The chassis in itself doesn’t seem to be broken, the side impact structure… the engine also, I was told from Ferrari, seems to be okay, the battery pack as well, and then all the rest is broken,” Steiner said.

READ: Schumacher tells Ferrari: I’m ready to replace Leclerc or Sainz

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The Italian cautioned that the cost to put the car back together will be steep.

“I think the cost is still pretty high because all the suspension is gone, except the front left. I think there’s still something on there. The rest is just like powder, carbon powder,” he explained.

“I don’t know money-wise as yet but these cars, between gearbox, the whole bodywork’s gone, radiator. [The cost is] between half a million to a million [dollars] I would say.”

This will come out of Haas’ budget for the 2022 season which, for all of the teams, sits at $140 million, down from $145 million last year.