Outgoing AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has admitted that he wanted the team to sign Mick Schumacher to replace Pierre Gasly, who departed Faenza for Alpine.
Gasly had at first signed a contract extension with AlphaTauri for 2023; however, following Alpine’s fiasco with Oscar Piastri, the French side approached the Frenchman.
AlphaTauri allowed Gasly to make the switch, opening up a seat alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
With Schumacher’s future at Haas having been very much up in the air, the German was linked to the Red Bull sister team.
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Tost seriously “wanted” the German to replace Gasly, with the team boss noting that Schumacher is “much better than he is currently perceived by the outside world”.
However, Nyck de Vries was ultimately signed to replace Gasly, leaving Schumacher without a seat for 2023 after he was dropped by Haas.
Schumacher has since replaced De Vries as Mercedes’ reserve driver, where he drove the W14 for the first-time last week in Barcelona.
According to Tost, Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko “rejected” his idea of signing Schumacher, partly due to “political reasons”.
Replacing Gasly was nevertheless a stressful task for the team, with Tost having revealed how “chaotic” it was.
“Until Monza it was completely unclear who would be our next driver,” Tost told formel1.de.
“And then, logically, I thought of Mick Schumacher.
“It was clear that Schumacher did not have a seat for 2023, so when I saw that we would have a spot available, I wanted to have him.
“It was quite a chaotic situation at the time because we had already committed to continuing with our drivers from 2022 but then suddenly Gasly was transferred to Alpine.
“I really argued for Schumacher then.”
De Vries was ultimately signed following his stand-in performance for Williams at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, where he replaced an ill Alex Albon from FP3 onwards.
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The Dutchman remarkably progressed to Q2, before finishing ninth in the race.
His one-off performance seriously impressed Marko; however, the start of his rookie campaign has been very lacklustre.
De Vries is one of two drivers yet to score a point in 2023, with Marko having already shown the 28-year-old a “yellow card”.