British F1 journalist Joe Saward has indicated that the Haas team are beginning to grow impatient with Mick Schumacher’s performances in the early going of the season.
Despite a much improved car this season compared to last year, the young German has now gone 29 race entries without scoring a single point in the pinnacle of motorsport, and his accident in Monaco was his second big crash of the year so far.
The extensive repair jobs will be coming out of Haas’ $140 million budget this season – the same as is allocated to everyone – and team principal Guenther Steiner was ominous in his blunt assessment of the crash after the race on Sunday.
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“With Mick we obviously saw what happened,” he said in the team’s race review.
“It’s not very satisfactory having a big crash again. We need to see how we move forward from here.”
Schumacher has been out-qualified five times this year by team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who returned to the side after the sacking of Nikita Mazepin amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Dane has managed points on three occasions, putting pressure on the 23-year-old to stop crashing, and start performing.
This is of course easier said than done, but Saward warns in his blog that Schumacher is danger of being placed into the category of “good, but not quite good enough,” along with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
The Canadian is set to stay at the team next year in part due to the ownership of Aston Martin by his billionaire father Lawrence, although he has out-performed team-mate Sebastian Vettel in one qualifying session and two races of the five they have had together this season after the German’s return from COVID-19.
The four-time champion is out of contract at the end of this season, and there is no guarantee that he will decide to stay, so Saward writes that the Silverstone-based side would be a “good choice” for Schumacher.
The Briton theorises that the 23-year-old’s team are looking for alternative options if Haas decide they want to put someone new in the car, but they would first have to make sure they find a replacement that suits Ferrari.
The contract between the two teams dictates that, in return for engine supply, Haas will run a Ferrari junior in their car, so they would be looking towards Formula 2 race winners Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott, the latter of whom has spent the last year racing in IndyCar.
Charles Leclerc’s brother, Arthur, might be another option, but it would appear likely that the Scuderia will wait to see how the Formula 3 driver performs in F2 first.
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Right now, there is no danger of Schumacher being released Haas but, given the rumoured Audi interest in purchasing Aston Martin, the young German could be an ideal option.
Vettel, the driver he might replace, called on the media after the Monaco Grand Prix to ease off his good friend and give him time to rediscover the form that won him the F2 title in 2020.
“It’s so easy to get it wrong so quickly,” he said, as per RaceFans.net.
“I don’t know exactly what happened to him, I haven’t seen it, but the main thing is he’s okay.
“I have no doubt that he can do more than he’s showing right now but I think you have to leave him alone for a bit.”