'Schumacher breakdowns cost Haas over 2.5 million'

Just before the last race of the year, it was announced that Haas will not continue with Schumacher next season and will instead put Nico Hülkenberg in the car. At the time, Haas team boss Guenther Steiner gave a wide range of reasons for the choice, the main one being that Hülkenberg brought more experience with him. Yet it is hard to imagine that the cost factor did not also play a part.

According to Bild's calculations, Schumacher would have cost £2.5 million in repairs this year. For a team like Haas, which has long struggled to keep its head above water financially, that is a hefty sum.

Saudi Arabia was most expensive weekend

Schumacher's most expensive crash came at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. During qualifying, the German hit the wall so hard that the car was declared total loss for the weekend. Schumacher was fine but Haas did not manage to fix the car quickly enough and so the American racetrack drove only one car that weekend. The cost of that crash would eventually come to £760 thousand. In addition, Schumacher also crashed at the Monaco Grand Prix, splitting the car in two, and during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix. Due to engine problems, he also crashed out in the Spanish Grand Prix.