David Schumacher suffers fracture in Hockenheim DTM crash
David Schumacher has been diagnosed with a broken lumbar vertebra following a terrifying crash during the final round of the 2022 DTM season at Hockenheim.
Schumacher was one of several drivers to crash out on a frantic lap after the safety car restart on Saturday, prompting race control to immediately red-flag the session.
The Winward Mercedes driver was battling with Thomas Preining's Team Bernhard Porsche for seventh when they made contact into Turn 8, smashing the barriers at high-speed on the outside of the left-hander.
Schumacher was subsequently taken to a hospital in Ludwigshafen, 30km north of the circuit, where initial checks revealed he had suffered a scraped knee and bruising to his lumbar spine.
Now, the 20-year-old’s father and ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has revealed that he has sustained a fracture to his lumbar vertebra and is required to wear a corset for the time being.
However, he won’t require an operation on his broken spine and is expected to make a complete recovery in a few weeks.
"When David came home, he was still complaining of back pain,” Ralf Schumacher told German news agency dpa.
“We then decided to go to a hospital in Salzburg to have an MRI done. It turned out that a lumbar vertebra was fractured.
“According to the doctors treating David, that means a break of around six weeks.”
David Schumacher, Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Schumacher sat out Sunday’s title decider due to the damage sustained to his Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the crash, bringing a premature end to his first season in the DTM.
The ex-Formula 3 racer scored a best result of 11th during the year, achieved at Spa, and qualified inside the top 10 twice in a field comprising nearly 30 cars.
Interview: David Schumacher's first year in DTM
His tangle with Preining created a chain reaction under braking for Turn 8, leading to Ricardo Feller tagging the back of Dennis Olsen’s Porsche.
Olsen was sent spinning into the wall on the other side of the track, with the Norwegian's engine ripped from the chassis and striking the Ferrari of Nick Cassidy.
Porsche duo Preining and Olsen were subsequently declared unfit to race by the doctors, while Cassidy also missed Sunday’s final race due to damage.
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