Mick Schumacher has set his sights on making Haas regret their decision to sack him for 2023, with the Americans having announced on Wednesday that they won’t be extending the 23-year-old’s contract.
It was confirmed by the team that Nico Hulkenberg will be making his full-time return to the championship, forming arguably the most experienced line-up in 2023 alongside Kevin Magnussen.
For Schumacher, though, it appears that a reserve role at Mercedes is on the horizon, with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff having admitted during the week that the Schumacher name “belongs to Mercedes”.
Following the announcement that he isn’t being retained by Haas, Schumacher released a message on social media where he explained that he will “prove them wrong”, something he was asked to elaborate on.
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“PTW (prove them wrong), it’s what I’ve been saying most part of this year,” he replied to Motorsport.com, asking him to explain his social media message.
“I just felt like saying that because I think I want to prove everybody wrong who doesn’t believe in me, because I know what I can do. I’ve proven that in the junior categories, and I don’t see a reason why I can’t do that.”
It appears that nothing would’ve saved Schumacher, with Haas boss Guenther Steiner having revealed that the decision to drop him would’ve remained even if it was the son of Michael Schumacher who claimed pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“Nothing would have changed,” admitted Steiner to Motorsport.com.
“Because you cannot make this decision on an emotional one race or one qualifying result, that would be wrong, it could be wrong both ways.”
So why did Haas drop Schumacher?
Well, it appears that his heavy crashes at the start of the year have played into the team’s decision, something which is understandable given just how big and expensive they were.
Despite this, Steiner is adamant that other reasons played into the decision as well, with it being down to a “mix” of things.
“It’s part of it, but you cannot just say, ‘oh he crashed’, which obviously wasn’t good,” he said.
“I’m not trying to make it good now, but then you can see how much influence his very good results have had. It’s this balance you need to find. One thing is very good, when he finished in Austria and Silverstone, it was very good results.
“And then you had the bad things, the crashes. So it’s a mix of it. But it was not one event as much as it looks like triggered this, it’s a combination of things and the biggest thing is going forward we just want to build up the team again.”
The Italian was also asked what Hulkenberg has that Schumacher doesn’t, with his answer perhaps being somewhat unfair for their current driver.
Steiner believes Hulkenberg has the edge due to his “experience” and having raced with “another team”, something which is unsurprising considering he made his F1 debut for Williams in 2010.
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Schumacher is only just coming to the end of his second year in F1, but his first in a car capable of competing in the midfield, something that should be remembered.
“I think the experience of multi-years in F1, and never having been with another team other than us,” the Haas boss added.
“What Nico brings in, he’s been with three or four teams before, so he has the experience and experience takes time to make, and at the moment, we don’t have time because we want to move forward. We don’t want to be where we are now, we want to be better.”