“You can’t buy talent” were the stong critical words by Gene Haas as shown in the latest Netflix Formula 1 show, Drive to Survive. Ralf Schumacher reacts to hard-hitting statements about Mick.
“Dead man walking” and “you can’t buy talent” were the Haas team’s harsh statements about Mick Schumacher from season 5 of the Netflix documentary series “Drive to Survive”. Even Ralf Schumacher “watched the episode especially”, as he says, because there was so much talk about it – and formed his own opinion about it.
Ralf Schumacher has “no problem at all” with Günther Steiner’s criticism at the beginning of the season, when Mick Schumacher crashed in Baku or Monaco, for example, because it was “absolutely justified”:
“Mick was slow and made mistakes. And as a driver you have to deal with the fact that the team criticises that,” says to Sky as expert in an interview on the YouTube channel.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with criticism, as long as it is justified. But the “how and where”, as shown in “Drive to Survive”, is a very good way to determine “what the team’s manner is like. And then you can imagine: A young man doesn’t have it easy there,” Schumacher says.
He is, however, “critical” of a scene in the Netflix docu-series in which first the infamous interview by “Sky” reporter Peter Hardenacke with Steiner in Baku is shown and then Steiner’s comment to his press spokeswoman:
“The interview was pretty nasty. They weren’t fair. I mean, if Mick doesn’t want to stay, if he doesn’t like it, he can leave.”
“A bit unfair and a pity”
A statement that disturbs Ralf Schumacher: “I don’t understand why he refers to Mick in the interview and not to what Sky did with him”.
That was “a bit unfair and a pity” on Steiner’s part, thinks the Sky pundit.
“I have no problem at all with criticism. And Günther Steiner should lead his team the way he wants and thinks is right,” Schumacher clarifies.
He was only bothered by the way he treated him: “I simply have to say that I expect a grown man to treat a young man differently. […] I think the young man could have been better motivated.”
“When you see that now, you can imagine even more how hard it was for Mick and what Mick achieved there at his age. In a team where you have the feeling that you are not wanted and you are actually racing against the sack, Mick has done a great job. Whether he is good enough at the end of the day, only the future will show.”
Ralf Schumacher praises Nico Hülkenberg
Ralf Schumacher does not think that Nico Hülkenberg’s strong performance on his first race weekend for Haas automatically belittles Mick Schumacher’s performance in the 2022 season because Hülkenberg had fewer problems with Magnussen, at least once in Bahrain.
“Some colleagues have written that Hülkenberg is moving Mick to the sidelines. In all honesty, I have to say: it’s a bit early. One race does not make a world championship,” Schumacher says.
But: “Nico did a great job, no question about it. And accordingly, one must also acknowledge without envy, Günther Steiner did not make a bad decision […].”
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