Schumacher the Mr Dodgem of F1

MICK Schumacher cost his team more money in crashes than any other driver during the 2021 Formula 1 season.

Sky Germany has revealed the repair bills each driver racked up, with Schumacher shading top spot over Charles Leclerc.

The Haas rookie’s position at #1 will come as little surprise because he was actually called out by his team boss Guenther Steiner for exactly the same reason.

In the summer, Steiner, referring to Schumacher’s crashes, most notably in Monaco, France and Hungary, said: “Mick in the last five races had

quite a few big ones. It’s a lot of money and for no good reason. They are getting a little bit too frequent and too heavy.”

That prompted a spat with the 22-year-old driver’s uncle Ralf, an ex-F1 racer himself, who accused Steiner of washing dirty laundry in public.

Nevertheless, according to Sky Germany, Schumacher’s accidents resulted in damage of more than 4.2 million Euros – putting him at the top of the chart, just ahead of Ferrari driver Leclerc.

Multiply that by 1.57 to get the value in Australian folding money.

The Monegasque’s highest-profile crash of the season, was ironically the one that cemented his pole position for his home race in Monte Carlo, as it brought out the red flags and truncated the ‘flying’ laps of those trying to challenge him.

The sting in the tail, however, was that Leclerc was unable to take the start for the Monaco Grand Prix due to the extent of damage his car

had sustained.

At the other end of the scale, Alpine got away extremely lightly as its drivers, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, kept it remarkably clean in