Schumacher: Steiner speaks out

“In the end, we both played with open cards on the table” claims Mick Schumacher’s former Formula 1 team boss who describes the moment Mick and Haas parted ways at the end of last year. The decision was preceded by a long stand-off which Günther Steiner appears to have forgotten about when speaking out about the young German.

In an exclusive interview with RTL/ntv, Haas team boss Günther Steiner talked about his relationship with the German racing driver and assessed Schumacher’s prospects in Formula 1.

After two seasons as a regular driver, Mick Schumacher will continue as a reserve driver for Mercedes in 2023. His former team boss Günther Steiner believes the 23-year-old can make it back onto the Formula 1 grid via his involvement with the Silver Arrows.

“I think he is in a good position at Mercedes. Mercedes has many teams from the same family,” said the South Tyrolean in an exclusive “RTL/ntv” interview with Formula 1 pundit Felix Görner.

To justify his statement, Steiner immediately gave a handy example:

“Last year you saw how it went with Nyck de Vries. He jumped in at Williams and got a regular cockpit at AlphaTauri this way,” said the Haas team boss.

Because of this, he also sees Mick Schumacher “in a good position”, said Steiner:

“I hope it is not the case for any driver that he cannot drive. But if there’s a chance, Mick can get in there and drive.”

As Schumacher will be a backup at Mercedes behind Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, spending many hours in the simulator. The former Formula 2 champion wants to fight his way back into the grid via this job, with Steiner seemingly ready to encourage the German.

“Sometimes one step back is two steps forward,” Steiner looked at his ex-protégé’s situation:

“He’s put himself in a good position with a team where he has the best chance of a regular cockpit in the future.”

“In the end, we both played with open cards on the table”

At Haas, Mick Schumacher had lost his cockpit to Nico Hülkenberg. Steiner did not want to overstate the separation from the German.

“It just happens in life. You break up often and that’s why it doesn’t mean that you break up in a quarrel,” the Haas team boss revealed.

“In the end, we both played with open cards and that’s why I think we still talk to each other and greet each other,” Steiner concluded.

The openess of the situation at Haas does appear to be at odds with what happened in the latter half of the F1 season with Steiner seemingly already lining up Nico Hülkenberg to replace Mick.

Although this account of ‘giving Mick a chance’ corresponds to the rhetoric of Steiner, behind the scenes he and Gene had been working on a plan B for quite some time. More or less involuntarily, Schumacher’s successor, Nico Hülkenberg, of all people, revealed discussions had started in the summer when interviewed by Sky Germany in Abu Dhabi.

“It came about after the summer, during the summer break…” admitted the German.