Haas driver Mick Schumacher explains 'car preservation' the reason he will not race at Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Mick Schumacher has explained why he will not be racing at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after his huge crash in qualifying. The German was looking on course to get through Q2 on Saturday when he started to lose his way in turn nine before ending his involvement with a collision with a wall and finishing up around turn 12. Ad/> Such was the impact of the crash that his Haas car disintegrated as designed to absorb the force of the blow rather than risk the health of the driver, and speaking to Sky Sports it appeared the design had done its job.

Saudi Arabian Grand PrixButton admits 'surprise' at Hamilton's 'step backwards' in Saudi ArabiaAN HOUR AGO “I feel alright, not too sore either,” he said. “Just shows the safety of these cars these days. To be able to walk away from this — 20 years ago, people wouldn’t have been able to do that — so thank you to everybody involved in the safety.” Schumacher explained how the accident had happened, revealing things started to go wrong much earlier on the course than his final resting place.

“It’s interesting, because most of the time when you have an accident, when you know something is going wrong, time changes a bit, goes a bit slow,” he began. Mercedes performance 'totally unacceptable', says Wolff Button admits 'surprise' at Hamilton's 'step backwards' in Saudi Arabia Hamilton praises Williams sisters' success after 'trials and tribulations' “I saw the wall coming towards me prepared for impact and stuff. Unfortunately, because I had the car for sure going to Q3.