An ultimatum was set for Mick Schumacher early last month, with Haas telling the German that if he wanted to have any chance of keeping his seat for 2023, then he would need to score a significant haul of points before the end of the season.
Since then the younger German has failed to score in Austin, Mexico and Brazil, and with Abu Dhabi the final race of this year’s calendar, it looks set that Schumacher will be out of F1 come the end of the year.
The 23-year-old will have some bad luck to blame for his recent failures, with damage in Austin and a deleted lap time in Mexico costing him a shot at points in both races, and Schumacher has admitted that maybe his luck just wasn’t in this year.
“Sometimes it’s your year and sometimes it’s not and I guess this year hasn’t been mine,” said the Haas driver.
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“We still have one more [race] to go and we’ll give our best.”
Nico Hulkenberg has been heavily rumoured to be the team’s favoured replacement, with the German claiming that negotiations were going well and that he has stepped up his training routine in anticipation of a return to the grid.
The 35-year-old has recently left his role as Aston Martin reserve driver, which comes as the biggest hint yet that Haas have already made up their mind, leaving Schumacher to wonder what he will be doing in 2023.
Daniel Ricciardo is also without a seat in 2023 and has outlined his plan to return to the top of F1, with the Australian set to take a year out serving as a reserve driver to keep himself ticking over, before searching for a race seat in 2024.
Schumacher has been linked to the reserve driver position at Alpine for next year, after Oscar Piastri leaves to join McLaren, as the German looks to ignore Bernie Ecclestone’s advice to step away from F1 altogether.
Similarly to Ricciardo, Schumacher reportedly wants to use the reserve driver role as a way of keeping his foot in the door, with the goal of returning to the grid in 2024 should the opportunity arise.
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“I don’t know if I’ll be in Formula 1 next year,” he claimed.
“But I think I deserve it. If Haas doesn’t want to continue with me, I will look at other options to restart my F1 career in 2024. This is where I want to be. It’s my sanctuary.”