For Haas and Mick Schumacher everything is good what ends well. The terrible accident involving the German driver caused him and the team an understandable fright and some physical dents, but little more.
After the first visits to the Medical Center and the subsequent ones to the hospital in Jeddah, Mick was discharged and even attended the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from the pits of the American team, thus seeing his teammate Kevin Magnussen get one more points. time after having already done so in the opening round in Bahrain. But, beyond the relief, there are also normal downsides.
Schumacher’s accident at Turn 10 resulted in nearly every part of VF-22 being destroyed or unusable. This is what emerged after the first analysis of the mechanics of the team headed by Guenther Steiner.
The first images after the accident left room for little doubt. The VF-22 appeared demolished: the whole front part – we are talking about the nose, wing and suspension – was practically crumbled. The same goes for the rear, with the gearbox-suspension and wing unit that detached from the power unit in the recovery operations of the crashed vehicle.
Fortunately, the pilot’s survival cell held up very well, but Steiner himself revealed what the material consequences of an accident of this magnitude were.
“The chassis itself does not appear to be broken. The lateral infrastructure yes, but it can be changed. Obviously we need to do a proper check on the chassis, but it looks like it’s not that bad, to be honest. As for the engine, I was told by Ferrari that it seems to be fine. The battery pack too. But everything else is broken! “.
Steiner then made an estimate of the damage caused by Schumacher’s accident in qualifying in Jeddah: “I think the cost is quite high because all the suspension is destroyed except the front left one. I think there is still something that can be reused. The rest is carbon dust only “.
“I don’t know exactly the amount in money but, between the gearbox, the bodywork, the radiators … it’s an accident that costs between 500,000 and a million dollars, I’d say”.
With the introduction of the Budget Cap, the teams had to put aside a rough estimate of the costs of damage. If Schumacher’s crash didn’t affect things too much, a series of repeated crashes could cause far more serious problems for the rest of the season.
“There is a nominal amount (which has been set aside), but in a racing team you can never rely too much on that as in a normal commercial business, because there is always a risk of accidents.”
“If you have two or three incidents like this, your budget that you have set aside is gone. It’s a loss. So there is a need to manage it. Obviously the hope is not to have as many others as that of the last Saturday, “concluded Steiner.
#Haas #Schumachers #crash #cost #million