Mick Schumacher could lose F1 seat after 2022 season
Aug.3 - Mick Schumacher risks falling out of Formula 1 in 2023, the major German newspaper Bild reports.
Retiring quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel had recommended his 23-year-old countryman for the Aston Martin seat next year, but the team signed up Fernando Alonso.
"Sebastian's good words to Lawrence Stroll didn't help," RTL pundit Felix Gorner said.
CIRCUIT PAUL RICARD, FRANCE - JULY 23: Mick Schumacher, Haas VF-22 during the French GP at Circuit Paul Ricard on Saturday July 23, 2022 in Le Castellet, France. (Photo by Steven Tee / LAT Images)
"That means there is only Haas for next season. It's now important for him to negotiate well in the next few weeks to secure his seat."
Indeed, having been highly critical of Haas in recent weeks, Mick's uncle Ralf Schumacher is suddenly now talking up the small American team.
"For my nephew Mick, Aston Martin would have been a good option," he told Sky Deutschland.
"But he's already with a team in Haas that is doing a good job and making progress. Mick's performance has improved significantly over the past few weeks, so I can well imagine them staying together," Schumacher added.
"I don't know what else Haas could do, because there aren't that many experienced drivers on the market. And we can see that new drivers need a long start-up time with these cars and no testing."
Bild newspaper correspondents Silja Rulle, Michel Milewski and Tom Kollmar claim that there have already been "initial talks" between Mick and Haas about 2023.
"But the relationship between the two parties is difficult," they acknowledged. "Gunther Steiner has been publicly critical of Mick in the past."
According to Bild, another big problem for Schumacher is that he may be losing the support of Mattia Binotto, as the German is a leading Ferrari academy driver.
Even Williams is apparently not an option for Mick.
"Alex Albon is staying and engine supplier Mercedes would like to see its driver Nyck de Vries replace Nicholas Latifi," the newspaper claims.
"What that means it that we face a year without a German driver in Formula 1."
Mick's final chance to stay in Formula 1 could be a seat at AlphaTauri.
"Yuki Tsunoda hasn't been decided yet, but he is number 1 on our list," Dr Helmut Marko told f1-insider.com.
"We haven't had any talks with Mick Schumacher. He's a Ferrari junior."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Like I said yesterday in a comment, F1 is downstream of the economy. The German economy and many of the industrial companies in Germany are facing the harshest economic climate in decades. With natural gas prices where they are, Germany industry is going to lose tremendous amounts of money.
What's the first thing to go when markets get tough? Advertising. It is no surprise the two German drivers are both suddenly potentially out of the sport. Their advertisers/backers are pulling back quickly.
Watch for the drivers with petrochemical sponsorship to get bumped up in conversations just as quickly as the German drivers fade.
For MSC, Williams and the green weenies would only be a lateral move. The RB feeder team would be a slight improvement and with excellent performance next season a shot at the second seat on the big team would be a possibility. It is really up to Mick to have a great second half this season. That might be a challenge considering the Haas 'upgrade' did not impress in Hungary. We'll see.
No, he'll stay put at Haas in all likelihood & I'm wholly positive he'll indeed continue in the end with zero doubts.
'Zero doubts' and not many more points either. In the Stroll, Albon etc category
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.