F1 legend Michael Schumacher’s nephew David Schumacher suffered a broken spine after a horrific crash at the Hockenheim DTM event over the weekend. The 20-year-old scrapped with Thomas Preining during lap 6, a collision on turn 8 sent both cars careering off track and towards the barrier. The Mercedes driver was subsequently taken to hospital and was initially given the all-clear after the accident.
However, fresh scans show that the German driver has a broken back. David’s father 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, David Schumacher won’t require surgery 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 the 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.”
After being involved in the horrific accident Schumacher ended up missing 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 crash between Schumacher and Preining also created a chain reaction under braking for Turn 8, leading to Ricardo Feller tagging the back of Dennis Olsen’s Porsche.
Olsen subsequently went spinning into the wall on the other side of the track, with the engine thrown out from his Porsche in impact catching fire and striking the Ferrari of Nick Cassidy. Porsche duo Preining and Olsen were subsequently declared unfit to race by the doctors, while Cassidy also ended up missing Sunday’s final race due to crash damage.
