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Thursday, March 1
Schumacher: Track design caused wreck
Reuters
MELBOURNE, Australia – World champion Michael Schumacher blamed a fault in the design of the Albert Park street circuit on Friday after walking away unhurt from a spectacular high-speed crash in free practice for Sunday's Australian Formula One Grand Prix.
|  | | Michael Schumacher's damaged Ferrari is looked over by marshals after Schumacher, left, crashed in the second practice at Australia. |
The 32-year-old German was pushing hard for an improved time in the closing stages of the second session of the day when his car spun, touched a curb and then lifted off after making contact with a "step" on the edge of a gravel trap.
After two dramatic rolls, his Ferrari came to rest by the barriers and Schumacher was able to climb out, slightly shaken but not hurt.
He stayed there to help the marshalls supervise the rescue of his vehicle before returning to the Italian team's garage.
"There is a bit of a step just there and that is why the car lifted off," said Schumacher after emerging from the pits.
"I was in the car getting ready for a really big impact, but it was not as big as I expected it to be. It was quite a soft impact in the end."
He said he had walked the circuit on Thursday and noted that there were raised lips around the edge of the gravel traps that he felt were hazardous.
Schumacher said that he would now raise the matter with race officials.
"I know exactly what happened and now I am going to talk to the officials about it. I will go to see them because I think it needs to be repaired for this weekend," he said.
"It was lucky for me that the impact was not heavier – it could have been worse."
The accident happened on the sixth turn of the track when Schumacher was braking from a speed of about 220 kph.
"I did not see the yellow flags until quite late in that corner. I had to hit the brakes hard, which meant I lost the back end of the car," he said.
"I did not see them early enough to brake smoothly. The car hit the step and because of that it took off in the blue gravel trap. Luckily, I think the car can be repaired. It is not too bad."
Ferrari said they were concerned about the condition of the car and would not confirm it would be fit to use on Saturday until they had carried out a thorough examination.
The team revealed they had brought only three cars to the race.
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Schumacher tops Tiger
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Michael Schumacher was selected Forbes Magazine's richest sportsperson of 2000 on Thursday, with earnings of $59 million – $6 million more than Tiger Woods.
But he may have to part with some of that this year – a court in Brussels has ordered him to pay $114,000 a day in a dispute over a helmet contract. He'll have to pay that amount for every day he wears a German-made Schuberth helmet.
The Belgian court ordered him to finish out his contract, which ends following this season, with Sports Europe – the Belgian subsidiary of U.S.-based Bell Sports. Schumacher had no immediate comment on the court decision.
– The Associated Press
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Schumacher said he had been concerned about the different levels of the grass and the gravel traps in the run-off areas and hoped the officials could do something about them.
He added that the accident in which Brazilian Luciano Burti, in a Jaguar, went off earlier in the session demonstrated the problem.
Schumacher said: "It's not really good enough. I saw it yesterday and something needed to be done."
Ferrari team chief Jean Todt said they had drawn the problems of the stepped lips to the attention of the clerk of
the course on Thursday.
"We said something about it yesterday and this kind of accident shows what needs doing. We hope they pay a lot of attention to it," said Todt.
The accident and its aftermath revived memories of Finn Mika Hakkinen's life-threatening accident at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, and also of the meticulous attention to safety detail shown in the past by Brazilian Ayrton Senna.
Schumacher, a member of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, is also a leading worker for safety in the sport.
His accident marked an eventful opening day, run in warm sunshine under blue skies, with the leading drivers
producing much faster times than those seen last year.
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was quickest with a best effort of 1 minute, 28.965 seconds in his Ferrari, a time well inside the qualifying lap record set by Canadian Jacques Villeneuve for Williams at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix.
Italian Jarno Trulli was second in his Jordan in a time of 1:29.267, with Schumacher third fastest.
The McLarens of Briton David Coulthard and Hakkinen were fourth and fifth fastest.
All the new boys acquitted themselves well with Spaniard Fernando Alonso, 19, on his debut for the newly purchased Australian-owned Minardi team, finishing 17th quickest out of 22.
Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, making his first appearance for Williams, was 15th. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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