Guenther Steiner on $700k Mick Schumacher crash: ‘It was f***ing ridiculous’

Guenther Steiner has recalled a very costly Mick Schumacher crash which made it increasingly difficult to trust him in the Haas car.

Schumacher racked up a whopping $2million repair bill in what proved to be his final year as a Haas driver in 2022 and, in his new book ‘Surviving to Drive’, the Haas boss has singled out Schumacher’s crash at a wet FP1 session in Japan that had him putting plenty of pennies in the swear jar.

Driving back to the pits at Suzuka, Schumacher aquaplaned through Turns 7 and 8 and hit the barriers hard as a result. It was moments like this that ensured his time with Haas would come to an end following the conclusion of the 2022 campaign.

“It happened on the foking in-lap!” Steiner remarked in his book which has been billed as ‘an exhilarating account of a year inside F1.’

“On the in-lap! Sure, it was very wet out there on the track, but nobody else managed to write off a car while they were driving back to the pits.

“We lose a car after five minutes and now have to build another. I cannot have a driver who I am not confident can take a car around safely on a slow lap.

“It’s just foking ridiculous. How many people could we employ with $700,000? And I have to now find that money.”

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Steiner was the target of regular criticism from Mick’s uncle Ralf Schumacher, who used his platform as an F1 pundit to be a very vocal opponent of the Haas boss and his alleged mistreatment of the son of the seven-time World Champion, Michael.

Even with Mick finding safe haven as a reserve driver at Mercedes this season, Ralf still fires shots in Steiner’s direction – most recently in a now deleted Instagram post which mocked Steiner’s supposedly dry and wrinkly skin.

But, regardless of the potential backlash from his open and honest reactions, Steiner will always stay true to his word and he is certainly not one to play up to the presence of the Netflix cameras.

“I don’t want to watch myself because if you watch yourself you get critical about your actions,” Steiner said inan interview with The Times.

“But I’m not an actor. My job is being a team principal, so that’s what I need to do. If you watch it you get influenced. When you see a camera, you act differently.

“Then it gets weird. And I don’t want to get weird. I don’t want to be afraid of a camera.”

Steiner’s ‘Surviving to Drive’ book is released on April 20.