Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Monaco, 2021

Schumacher “too confident” in crash which ruled him out of qualifying

2021 Monaco Grand Prix

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Mick Schumacher admitted he took too great a risk in the crash which ruled him out of qualifying for today’s Monaco Grand Prix.

The Haas driver hit the barriers at Casino in the last minutes of the final practice session. With only two hours to repair his car before qualifying began, the team quickly realised he would not be able to participate.

“Obviously it’s very unfortunate because I think we were on a pretty good roll,” said Schumacher. “We had a pretty good pace up to that point.”

The reigning Formula 2 champion admitted he had let his confidence get the better of him.

“We had a pretty good pace up to that point” – Schumacher
“We were quite confident in the car,” he said. “And, obviously, maybe you could argue that I was a bit too confident, pushing quite hard, going to exploit the limits.

“In that corner it’s quite easy to make a mistake. Looking back at it, I think obviously I have to ask myself, was it worth it? And probably the answer would be no.”

Speaking after the qualifying session, Schumacher said the team had nearly completed the repairs to his chassis.

“The car’s pretty much fixed again. The team did an incredible job of getting it back to the point that it was quite back together. But unfortunately, it’s such a tight schedule from FP3 to quali that there was unfortunately no time to fix it before quali.”

The stewards ruled Schumacher may start the race, despite not having lapped within 107% of the fastest time in Q1, as his lap times in practice were quick enough. He said he will learn from the experience and move on.

“It’s a massive amount that I’ve learnt going through all the free practice, going through all the procedures. I think at the end as well, you can say nothing’s lost because you’re going to a race like Monaco, which is a very special race because lots of things can happen. Errors are easily made here and that’s not only for me, but for everybody in the grid.

“So I know we’ll go into the race open-minded. We’ll have lots of strategies that we can play with and hopefully we’ll be in the mix and if not further ahead of some people.”

2021 Monaco Grand Prix

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6 comments on “Schumacher “too confident” in crash which ruled him out of qualifying”

  1. Mick should start the race on Hard tyres.

  2. Can we just say he’s in F1 for one reason now?

    1. @darryn Like his teammate, but for a different one.

    2. @darryn you mean because he shows promissing skills and in is first season is already hitting walls like Verstappen and Leclerc?

    3. RandomMallard (@)
      23rd May 2021, 7:37

      Yes @darryn. He won the F2 Championship in 2020 and absolutely dominated the European F3 field in 2018, especially in the second half of the season. And that field had: Marcus Armstrong, Jehan Daruvala, Guanyu Zhou, Dan Ticktum, Juri Vips, Alex Palou, and Robert Swartzman. His past record shows that it takes him a while (usually half a season or even a full one) to get used to a new car, but once he’s settled he is very, very quick.

    4. Failed talent just like failed talents in football? Or team is noob with a noob car?

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