Haas will not have a spare car to rely on at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix after Mick Schumacher’s heavy crash at the previous race in Saudi Arabia.
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Schumacher suffered a large impact in qualifying for the second round of the championship and did not start the race after the team decided not to risk further damage to its remaining car. Haas team principal Guenther Steiner confirmed the team will not have an extra chassis available if another car is significantly damaged this weekend.
“The situation with spare parts is as expected on race number two after a big crash,” Steiner said. “We have got everything but we have no abundance of spare parts.”
The damaged VF-22 was transported from Saudi Arabia to Australia before being returned to the team’s European base.
“We sent it back, at the beginning of the week, to Europe so we get it ready for Imola,” Steiner explained. “We had to bring it here because of customs formalities, it had to be entered here and then it could be shipped back to Europe from here and it’s on its way back now.”
Despite the limited spare parts, Steiner said he will not change instructions to Schumacher or team mate Kevin Magnussen on how they should approach the race weekend.
“I think you cannot approach it different,” he said. “The drivers are aware of the situation, there is no spare chassis, but that can happen sometimes that there is no spare chassis. I’m not panicking and if something happens we will deal with it as it comes along. You cannot say ‘go out there and drive slowly’, that doesn’t make sense as well, it’s just like don’t take extra risks if you don’t have to.”
Schumacher downplayed any concern about the lack of a backup car and expressed confidence the team will manage without it.
“I think that everything’s going to be just fine,” he said. “We will be quick, hopefully, and we’ll for sure not need that spare one.”
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