Mick Schumacher has joined Lewis Hamilton and team mate George Russell, he is “shocked”. With Mick Schumacher having lost his place in F1 and has become the reserve driver for Mercedes, the German replaced by Nico Hülkenberg at Haas this season. The youngster is now working with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell while waiting for a new Formula 1 seat. Michael Schumacher’s son has been impressed by the incredible communication within the German team.
Mick Schumacher lost his place on the grid this season when he joined the F1 team in 2021. The German was replaced by Nico Hülkenberg at Haas. But the son of the legendary Michael Schumacher has not left the sport entirely, as he has joined Mercedes as a reserve driver.
While there is no guarantee of Schumacher’s return to the sport, the 23-year-old has been open about his confidence that he will eventually be in line for a new contract.
Toto Wolff had been very complimentary of Schumacher over the last few months of 2022, and had expressed his desire to add the youngster to the team’s line-up ahead of next season, which culminated in the youngster joining the Brackley based team this year.
Mick has been signed up for Ferrari’s 2019 driver programme, a year after his Formula 3 Championship victory. He won the Formula 2 championship in 2020, which earned him a promotion to F1 with Haas in 2021.
Schumacher crossed the line with Steiner at Haas
Steiner, known for being outspoken, said Schumacher’s repeated and expensive crashes had been the reason for the end of Schumacher’s tenure with the Haas team.
Steiner has since revealed when he knew that Mick Schumacher was not going to be extended.
It is estimated that Schumacher cost the team around $2 million in repairs, with three major crashes at the Jeddah Cornich Circuit, on the streets of Monaco and at Suzuka.
The crash at Suzuka was the point at which Schumacher crossed the line with Steiner, as it happened on the in-lap.
Steiner claims high costs by Mick
The South Tyrolean from Italy rants during the race in Japan: “I can’t have a driver who I don’t trust to get a car safely through a slow lap. That’s ridiculous. How many people could we have hired for 700,000 US dollars? And now I have to find the money somewhere.”
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Fernando with some driving tips for Nico 📻🫣#F1 pic.twitter.com/lsXuY4jjcG
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 13, 2023
Mercedes’s primary hope for the new W14
Should either Lewis Hamilton or George Russell be unable to compete during an F1 race weekend, Mick Schumacher will be on standby at Mercedes but despite the title of the 23-year-old driver’s role with the team, his main focus will be on helping Mercedes design their 2023 F1 car, the W14, through time spent in the factory simulator.
Mercedes need help after an underwhelming 2022 season in which the 2021 champions managed just one win, and since the start of 2023, the new W14 Mercedes car appears even worse than before.
No doubt Mick’s time in the simulator will be on overdrive as Mercedes tries to rectify the issues and turn the season around for Hamilton and Russell.
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Mercedes an ’emotional’ choice for Mick Schumacher
Now at Mercedes, it seems Mick is far more comfortable with this place within an F1 team, and indeed has become quite emotional about the new job.
“What I really like about working with these engineers is that they listen to you sincerely and your opinion counts, and what’s special from an emotional point of view is that a lot of the people who work for the team now used to work here when my father was driving,” added the Mercedes reserve driver.
Mick Schumacher is clearly feeling good about the German team. It remains to be seen whether his efforts will help him to regain a place on the starting grid.
Shocked: “I didn’t expect this amount of communication”
Mick Schumacher is working alongside Lewis Hamilton and George Russell until he finds a seat next season. And the 24-year-old admitted that he was impressed and indeed ‘shocked’ with the communication within the German team.
“As a driver, you don’t usually hear what’s going on between all the engineers when you’re on the track, so listening to them during the sessions was extremely interesting.
“I was quite shocked by the first race in Bahrain, I wasn’t expecting such a high amount of exchange. You don’t know what you’re missing until you’re part of it,” explained Mick Schumacher in a story reported by F1Only.com, hinting that things were quite different during his time at Haas F1.
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From Day 1, I’ve felt that Steiner is very immature and a loud mouth, despite being named Team Principle of Hass. And Hass is .. a non-entity. Where is this idiot? Has he ever even been to F1 race?? The Haas team simply sucks.