David Schumacher, the nephew of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher and son of former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, suffered a spine fracture during a scary crash at a DTM race in Germany on Saturday.
The 20-year-old was competing in the final round of the 2022 DTM season at Hockenheim. He collided with Thomas Preining while they battled for seventh after a safety car restart during Lap 6 at Turn 8, and both cars hit the barrier at high speed. The chaos set off a chain of more incidents, as Ricardo Feller hit the back of Dennis Olsen's Porsche, which hit the inside of the barrier and caught on fire. Nick Cassidy's Ferrari got tangled up in the mess too.
Here is a look at the incident:
#DTM - Look what happened at #Hockenheim pic.twitter.com/abAuhOl7CB
— Porsche Motorsport (@PorscheRaces) October 8, 2022
As expected, Schumacher missed the title race on Sunday.
The crash was a quick but scary moment. Schumacher was taken to a hospital in Ludwigshafen and was first told he had suffered a scraped knee and bruising to his lumbar spine, per reports. Later on, his father said he was still complaining of back pain when he got home, so they decided to get him checked one more time. Schumacher is not expected to need surgery, but the results from his second hospital visit showed he will need some time off in order to recover properly.
"We then decided to visit a hospital in Salzburg to have an MRI. It turned out that a lumbar vertebra is broken," Ralf Schumacher said, according to motorsport.com. "According to the attending physicians, this means a break of about six weeks for David."
Schumacher finished the 2022 DTM season 28th in the standings.
