Michael Schumacher's nephew breaks spine in horrific car crash

David Schumacher, the nephew of legendary driver Michael Schumacher, suffered a broken spine in a horror crash over the weekend.

The incident happened during the final round of the 2022 DTM season at Hockenheim.

The 20-year-old was going toe to toe with Thomas Preining during lap six and collided on turn eight.

It was a collision that sent both cars racing off the track and towards the barrier. 

The incident occurred after the cars were bunched together in two-by-two formation as is procedure following a safety car restart.

Fellow driver Denis Olsen was trying to avoid the incident but also hit the barrier seeing his car burst into flames. 

The crash led race control to immediately red-flag the session.

Schumacher had initially been given the all-clear after being rushed to hospital, diagnosed with a scraped knee and bruising to his lumbar spine. 

However, Motorsport magazine reports that the driver had since received new scans showing a more severe injury.

David’s father and former F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher told the publication: "When David came home, he still complained of back pain. 

“We then decided to visit a hospital in Salzburg to have an MRI. It turned out that a lumbar vertebra is broken.

"According to the attending physicians, this means a break of about six weeks for David." 

German newspaper Blid reports that the young driver will fortunately not require surgery. 

BMW driver Phillipp Eng said of the crash: "It looked like a horror movie. That's not how it works, that's damage in the millions again."

Rene Rast commented: “These are bad scenes that we don't know from the DTM. There were high forces at work."

DTM champion Sheldon van der Linde added: “This is a step back after the Nürburgring, people take far too much risk, it's dangerous what happens."

Michael Schumacher has been away from the public eye since suffering a brain injury in a December 2013 skiing incident.

He was placed in a medically induced coma until June 2014. 

He currently resides with his family in Switzerland.