Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has replied to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, after the Austrian stated that Steiner would’ve treated Mick Schumacher differently had seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher been by his side.
Mick’s father hasn’t been seen publicly since his horrific skiing accident in December 2013, with the Mercedes reserve driver having instead been heavily supported by ex-F1 driver and uncle Ralf Schumacher.
The young German was released by Haas at the end of last season after the Americans opted not to renew his contract, with Schumacher having unfortunately made too many mistakes during his two-year spell.
Schumacher crashed heavily last season in Saudi Arabia and Monaco, costing the team millions in repairs.
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For a side like Haas, spending millions on repairs simply isn’t feasible, with it being part of the reason why they brought in the experienced Nico Hulkenberg.
Steiner admits that it “wasn’t easy” to manage the situation with Schumacher partly due to his famous surname, which, of course, carries an incredible amount of weight with it.
“What I have to say is, if my father would have been around, Toto wouldn’t have said the things he said,” Steiner joked to Sky Sports.
“It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t easy to manage that one because there was a lot of pressure from outside because of his last name.
“Then obviously he had the big crashes, which was very difficult to manage as well for the team because it was big damage. Which again you need to re-focus your budget on different things, as now with the budget cap you need to invest money in performance.
“It wasn’t easy, but racing is not easy and coming up for young guys in Formula 1 is very tough and nobody deserves to be in Formula 1, you need to perform.”
Steiner also believes the German media didn’t help Schumacher’s situation, with Steiner having often been criticised for how he treated the Mercedes driver.
The Haas boss somewhat thinks that all the headlines surrounding Schumacher last season actually worked against the driver, with Steiner stating that the media “tried to divide” the American team.
“I think they tried to put pressure on to keep Mick and blame all the team and I don’t think that was good for Mick,” Steiner wrote in his book ‘Driving to Survive’
“In the end, they didn’t actively try to divide us but that’s what they did. I think he didn’t feel good when he heard the things talked about me and I didn’t feel good coming from their side.
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“In the end, they tried to divide us.
“This is not good for Mick, even if they try to do this because in the end the team decides who is going to drive the car and not the driver which car he is driving.
“There is no point to upset a team about a driver because you want to say ‘Guenther didn’t take care enough of Mick and how I do things’.”