Mick ‘okay’ and out of hospital after Jeddah crash

Mick Schumacher has confirmed he is “okay” after the qualifying smash that ruled him out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Haas team, meanwhile, have stated the German driver is back recovering in his Jeddah hotel room after being taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

During Q2 for the second round of the 2022 World Championship, Schumacher was trying to reach the top-10 shootout for the first time in Formula 1, sitting ninth on the leaderboard when he hit the Turn 11 barrier at 170mph and crashed heavily.

The momentum carried the car down to Turn 12 where it came to rest against the wall, severely damaged, and with Schumacher seemingly unable to extricate himself from the cockpit.

When the F1 medical car arrived, the 23-year-old was helped out of the VF-22 and into an ambulance on a stretcher, being seen to remove his gloves by himself.

News quickly emerged from the Haas team that Schumacher was “physically okay” and had been talking to his mother, Corinna, but was being taken by helicopter to hospital for checks.

Haas later announced Schumacher would not be taking part in the race, leaving Kevin Magnussen as their only representative in 10th position on the grid.

Schumacher then posted a picture of himself on social media, smiling and with the message: “Hi everyone, I just wanted to say I’m ok.

“Thank you for the kind messages.

“The car felt great, we’ll come back stronger.”

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say that I’m ok🙏
Thank you for the kind messages.
The car felt great @haasf1team, we’ll come back stronger❤️ pic.twitter.com/Mwpy0767kN

— Mick Schumacher (@SchumacherMick) March 26, 2022

Haas added: “We can confirm Mick has been released from hospital and has returned to his hotel.”

Team principal Guenther Steiner described it as having been “a very eventful day for us”, saying: “The best thing is Mick has apparently no injuries.”

However, there was a physical issue for Magnussen who, in the second race of his comeback to F1 with the team he left at the end of 2020, found his neck muscles were not up to the rigours of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

“I’ve heard Mick is uninjured, which is good and incredible when you see the crash he had, but the safety is so good with these cars with the fact you can walk away from a crash like that, it’s impressive,” said the Dane.

“I think he was having a great qualifying session until that point and he was up for a good result, so he’ll just need to come back and get on the horse and bounce back.

“We have to be happy with [reaching] Q3, but the car was better than P10. I didn’t get the most out of it.

“Honestly, my neck just completely broke in Q3 – suddenly it snapped and I couldn’t hold it.

“I wasn’t driving well, I think maybe there was a P5 in the car, there’s only half a second up to P5 and my best lap in Q3 was on used tyres – and not a great lap, as I said.

“The team had a P5 in it, but I didn’t.”