F1 refugee Ralf Schumacher's New Year's Eve trip to New York with his family turned into a nightmare, his wife Cora has told a German newspaper.

Bild-Zeitung reports that the former Jordan, Williams and Toyota driver, along with his wife and their 6-year-old son David, had to evacuate the five-star Gramercy Park Hotel at 5am when a basement fire triggered a fire alarm.

The Schumacher family was staying on the ninth floor of the building.

"I thought about the 11 September terror attacks," Cora said. "There was smoke everywhere, people in their pyjamas. Never in my life was I as scared."