It was the scene of the Miami GP – at least from a German point of view. Shortly before the end of the race in Florida, Mick Schumacher crashes into his Formula 1 friend Sebastian Vettel and kills both of the points. For RTL expert Christian Danner it is very clear who is to blame for the momentous collision.
A crash with a particularly bitter note. Because Mick Schumacher has never been so close to the first points in Formula 1. Shortly before the end of the race in Miami, the 23-year-old was in 9th place, the first two championship points within reach. Sebastian Vettel was eighth in front of the Haas driver.
Then Schumacher’s attack: In turn 1 of lap 54, Schumi jr wants to overtake the F1 veteran, Vettel gives in – the collision can no longer be avoided. Both battered pilots have to turn into the pits, Schumacher gets a new front spoiler and falls back to 15th place, Vettel has to finish the race in the garage. Instead of a points party in Miami, there are long faces.
For RTL expert Christian Danner, there is no question who is to blame for the crash. “Mick clearly screwed it up. He wanted to make up for the mistake he had made earlier – he almost slipped out, and Vettel had overtaken him. In such a situation you just have to keep a cool head and say: I’ll take the point with me now.”
“A lot of scrap here”
A mistake is a mistake, Danner continues. But: “It just adds up a bit with him. There was a lot of scrap if you look at it closely.”
Compared to last year, when he still drove against the limited edition Nikita Mazepin, Schumacher is now at a disadvantage in the team-internal comparison against Formula 1 veteran Kevin Magnussen. And the crash against Vettel wasn’t the first mistake of the season. Only in the last race did two driving errors cost him a better place.
For Schumacher, however, it was only the 26th F1 race of his career. The 23-year-old is still learning a lot. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: the error rate has to go down. But time seems to be running away slowly.
Danner trusts Schumacher “that he will learn his lessons from it”. But the former F1 driver also warns: “It is high time, however. In Formula 1 you look very closely at young drivers and there you are when you see Verstappen, Leclerc or Norris as new to Formula 1 came, used to a quality that one expects from everyone else.”
Basically, “as a Formula 1 driver at the highest level of world motorsport, you have to learn how to deal with difficult situations and learn to deal with them when you have difficulties,” said Danner. “I trust Mick that he can raise the bar so much higher to meet his own demands and those of the team and Formula 1. But he still has to learn a little bit. The way things are going now, it’s not optimal. “
Ferrari currently not an issue
As a member of the Ferrari junior academy and current reserve driver for the Scuderia, German fans are hoping that Schumacher will take a seat in the Ferrari cockpit in the medium term. As of now, however, the topic is not acute at all, Danner believes.
“I don’t see that at all. What should Ferrari think about Mick Schumacher now when you have two drivers in Leclerc and Sainz who can consistently get on the podium? They really don’t need them right now.” Especially since Sainz extended his contract in Maranello until 2024 just two weeks ago.
Mick has other problems at the moment. “He should rather see that he can stay in Formula 1. To do this, he has to do it now and avoid mistakes. He can do that. You have to actively tackle it, then we’ll see in two or three years what a possible Ferrari place is concerned,” says Danner with a view to the future.
Until then, the present is hot: midfield with Haas – and also explaining mistakes. After the crash with Vettel, Schumacher was skillfully diplomatic. I could have stayed behind or tried harder to pass,” said Schumacher. Both drivers avoided assigning blame. “It’s a shame for both of us. I’ll definitely talk to him about it.”
Emmanuel Schneider