Mick Schumacher’s promising Markham IndyCar weekend ended with a crash during Sunday’s race. The RLL driver crashed without contact at Turn 4, clipping the inside wall as he was chasing down the lead pack.
Update: After returning to the pits, Schumacher spoke to reporters and confirmed the incident was a driving error.
“We weren’t even pushing hard. We had a really good car,” said Schumacher. “And I was just biding my time and, yeah, got a bit closer to the wall than I wanted to. And that little touch ended up pointing the car into the wrong way.
“It’s never, in any weekend, nice to end it by not finishing the race. I think one of the important parts of racing is to finish the race. Especially today, where we had such a good car, I think we could have scored some decent points. To end it in a wall is definitely not ideal. Now we’ve just got to look forward to Washington.”
Schumacher went on to describe the track conditions in what has been an eventful first race at the new temporary street circuit in Markham, Canada. He mentions how the geometry of the concrete barriers contribute to the unforgiving nature of the track.
“Honestly, I think any lap you do on this track feels sketchy. But it didn’t necessarily feel more sketchy than other laps. I think, in the contrary, it felt really good. The car felt great. And yeah, like I said, we just got to that pointy end of the corner.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a round wall here. Normally, you can rub it a little bit here with a pointy edge. The moment you just clip it a little bit, it will open the steering and send you up straight into the wall.”
Schumacher had made a strong start, climbing from 10th past team-mate Graham Rahal to move into ninth.
After 13 laps, Rinus ‘VeeKay’ van Kalmthout (Juncos-Chevrolet) surprisingly went into the pits, promoting Schumacher to P8. VeeKay would probably not have been able to hold the position, as he emerged in traffic.
A short time later, Schumacher suddenly went straight on at Turn 4 on lap 15. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Schumacher appeared to turn in early before going off, although it had not been confirmed whether driver error caused the incident.
