Mick Schumacher after early exit: "The risk is always there at the back"

– The IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg ended for Mick Schumacher after just a few hundred meters in Turn 4 on top of Santino Ferrucci’s car. Both were taken out of the race by a braking error from Sting Ray Robb.

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It was a chain reaction that left Mick Schumacher with no chance. “I saw Santino (Ferrucci) lock his wheels, but I didn’t know that someone else on the inside had also misjudged their braking,” Schumacher describes the scene from his perspective. “Sting Ray seemed to shoot a bit too far into the corner. That triggered everything.”

The 26-year-old had specifically chosen a cautious line: “I saw that everyone in front of me was driving quite chaotically and thought to myself: Okay, I’ll take the better line, which in this case was on the outside. We made it through turns two and three well, but then it was probably just a matter of time before something happened.”

Particularly bitter: Actually, the goal for the premiere was simply to finish the 100 laps to gain valuable experience. “We didn’t even manage one lap, that’s very unfortunate,” he concludes.

“I think we really would have needed this race to fully sort ourselves out and go into the next race without any doubts. But hey, we still have 17 races ahead of us, it’s only the first one, it’s just the beginning. I’m very excited for the rest of the season.”

Praise for the recovery crews

Curious: Immediately after the impact, when his Dallara-Honda came to a stop on top of another vehicle, Schumacher initially thought about continuing. “To be honest, my first thought was: Can I maybe drive this thing out of here in reverse?”, he admits with a smile.

“But then the safety car was there faster than expected, the engine was turned off, and the AMR people got me out immediately.”

Schumacher has only words of praise for the IndyCar series rescue crews: “The crew does a great job. They were on the spot immediately. It’s a good feeling to know that you’re always supported when something happens – even if, in this case, we would have preferred to keep driving, of course.”

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Looking ahead: Focus on qualifying

Schumacher sees the fact that he was involved in the start-line melee at the back of the field at all as the most important lesson of the weekend. He sees the trigger in his weak qualifying, when he got stuck in his qualifying group in Q1.

“We’re looking now at what we could have done better. Qualifying was one point. We were obviously blocked, lost momentum, and missed out on a better group,” he explains. The consequence followed promptly on Sunday, as there is little room for error at the back of the field.

“It’s racing. When you start at the back, there are always moments where you go into a corner three or four cars wide. That’s a risk in itself,” he analyzes in his usual matter-of-fact way. “The most important realization for us is: we have to qualify further forward. It’s as simple as that.”

Despite the retirement after less than one lap, the German remained optimistic. He is convinced that the RLL car would have offered significantly more than his qualifying position.

“We had a good car with which we probably could have moved far forward. We were quite confident with our strategy and excited to see what the others would do,” he says regarding the untapped potential.

He now wants to preserve the insights gained: “I’m happy about the insights we gained this weekend. We’ll implement that in Phoenix now. We’re looking forward, not back. There are still many races ahead of us – that was just the beginning and I’m very excited for the rest of the season.”

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