Mick Schumacher has been driving with an injury since the accident on the starting lap in St. Petersburg, as he reveals – a familiar ailment in IndyCars
The accident on the starting lap of the IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg has had greater consequences for Mick Schumacher than initially thought: since he was involved in the collision caused by Sting Ray Robb in turn 4, he has been driving with pain in his left wrist. However, due to the compact calendar, he does not want to have surgery until after the season at the earliest.
“Unfortunately, a piece of my wrist broke off after the accident in St. Pete, which I’m still struggling with. That means I actually get out of the car and am in pain, which is obviously suboptimal,“ says the son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher in an interview with Sky.
”And that will probably be an operation at the end of the year. Simply to bring it all back together. But yes, it’s definitely exhausting and so I have to do a bit more with my right hand at the moment.”
Hand injuries an old IndyCar topic
Hand and wrist injuries are a perennial issue in the IndyCar series. As the cars have no power steering, the force of an impact with an obstacle is transferred unfiltered to the hands.
The kickback effect is particularly feared, when the wheels are suddenly jerked in a different direction by an impact, which is transferred directly to the steering wheel. In other series such as Formula 1, the forces are transmitted less strongly due to the power steering, although hand injuries do occur here too, such as with Daniel Ricciardo in 2023. However, much less frequently.
For example, Kyle Kirkwood injured his hand in a crash in Detroit in the IndyCar series in 2022. J.R. Hildebrand suffered broken bones in a collision at Long Beach in 2017. Mick Schumacher’s current driver coach Ryan Briscoe also broke his wrist in an accident in 2013 and was never able to build on his earlier successes.
Positive feedback despite results that could be improved
Schumacher’s start to the US series was laborious in terms of results: although he achieved an early highlight with fourth place on the grid in Phoenix, there is still room for improvement in the race results with one retirement and 18th, 22nd, 24th and 17th places. (Pace analysis of the first four races) However, he is not putting himself under pressure and is concentrating on internal perception:
“To be honest, I haven’t watched any news at all. I think that’s probably helpful because I’m so far away from everything here that I don’t really need to listen to it. What we’ve done so far has been relatively well received in the paddock – which I even found a bit strange at first.“
Schumacher adds: ”I thought I had to protect myself from a potential shitstorm, but that wasn’t the case at all. On the contrary, people were rather happy about how I approached things. Personally, it taught me more than anything else. It’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them when things don’t go well. You have to move in the right direction to do better. The feeling of really having a team behind you that pushes you is very special and enjoyable.”
The Indianapolis 500 will be the highlight of the season in May. As an overture, there will be a classic Grand Prix beforehand on the infield circuit of the “Brickyard”, where Schumacher already tested last October.