Sebastian Vettel has called for calm around Mick Schumacher after the 23-year-old’s latest incident in Monaco.
Schumacher was running around outside the points behind Zhou Guanyu when he lost control of his Haas at the swimming pool section and slammed into the barrier.
His momentum took him into another wall, which snapped the back of the car off, but the German was thankfully unhurt.
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His second major crash of the year will have incurred a hefty bill for the team, and he has now gone 28 races without scoring a single point in the pinnacle of motorsport since his career began last season, so the pressure is beginning to mount.
Vettel, however, is certain that his friend will come good, and calls for the media to give him some space while he tries to finally get an elusive top 10 finish.
“It’s so easy to get it wrong so quickly,” he said, quoted by RaceFans.net.
“I don’t know exactly what happened to him, I haven’t seen it, but the main thing is he’s okay.
“I have no doubt that he can do more than he’s showing right now but I think you have to leave him alone for a bit.”
The four-time world champion has scored points in all of the last seven races he has contested in Monaco, but his streak of ending in the top five came to an end as he finished 10th.
The point came by virtue of a time penalty for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon after contact with Sir Lewis Hamilton, but he executed some marvellous overtakes during the race in wet conditions to put himself in position.
All in all, Vettel is pleased with his performance and the point that he took from his efforts.
“It was actually a clean race without any incidents and we got a point, which is not bad, because in Monaco it’s always difficult to work your way forward,” he added.
“When I consider how the race developed, I don’t think more would have been possible.
“Especially the first laps with the rain tyre were really difficult. That’s why we switched to the intermediate as early as possible.”
Vettel’s P10 is the first point Aston Martin have gained since the introduction of their upgrades in Spain the weekend previous, and the 34-year-old believes that the Silverstone-based team gained some valuable data throughout the weekend.
“We learned more about our car and how to optimise our set-up with the new parts we introduced in Barcelona,” explained Vettel.
“All these steps put us on the right track for the next races.”
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Aston Martin remain ninth in the Constructors’ Standings, but they have closed the gap to eighth-placed Haas to eight points after Kevin Magnussen’s water leak put him out of the race.
Lance Stroll, meanwhile, ended up 14th after damaging his car on the formation lap by running into the wall at Massenet.