Haas driver, Mick Schumacher, has confirmed that he does not yet know what the future has in store for him, but he will announce any news as and when it develops.
The 23-year-old signed with Haas last season, but neither he nor fellow rookie, Nikita Mazepin, were able to score points in an underperforming car.
Schumacher was kept on for this year, while the Russian was dropped when his funding from oligarch father, Dmitry, became unavailable amid the country’s ongoing invasion of sovereign Ukraine.
The 2020 Formula 2 champion endured a rough start to the year alongside returning team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who has out-qualified him 11 times.
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The Dane scored points in both of the first two rounds of the year in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, adding two more points finishes since in Silverstone and Spielberg.
Big crashes in Jeddah and Monaco put Schumacher under pressure, but he has composed himself since then, and solid performances, which yielded points in Britain and Austria, have been a massive improvement.
Nonetheless, he does not have a contract for next season, and rumours are circulating that he will be let go by Ferrari from their academy at the end of this season.
This further jeopardises his place at Haas, with Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Shwartzman circling, and there are limited options available elsewhere.
Alpine look set to replace Fernando Alonso with Pierre Gasly, McLaren are thought to be putting Oscar Piastri in their car when Daniel Ricciardo leaves, while Yuki Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu are expected to sign new contracts with AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo, respectively.
Gasly’s seat with the Red Bull junior side could be an opportunity for Schumacher if the Frenchman does leave, and there is still uncertainty over Nicholas Latifi’s future at Williams.
As silly seasons go, this year has been very silly indeed, and the pieces of the puzzle are yet to fall into place.
For Schumacher’s part, he will announce any news when he gets it, but he affirms that he is content where he is.
“Well, I’m happy where I’m at, and I think our goal is to be in the points-paying positions for the next races. It’s a clear goal of ours,” he told RacingNews365.com.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to manage that and, what the future holds…I’m sure that I’ll share it as soon as I know.”
Due to the requirement that teams take 14 days off over the summer to look out for their wellbeing, the German has not had a lot of conversations with Guenther Steiner or Gene Haas about a new deal over the holidays.
“Not directly, the summer shutdown is obviously two weeks where teams have to close down, so there’s no work allowed,” explained Schumacher.
“I felt like I wanted to respect that and give the team the chance to spend some time with their families as they haven’t done that much in the first part of the season.”
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As for the Ferrari reports, Schumacher kept his cards close to his chest.
“Well, we’ve talked about it, and, if there’s anything that I want to announce, that will be announced in due course,” he stated.
During the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Steiner did not wish to speak about his driver line-up going into next season.