Haas are a team who need results now, as the brutal finances involved in Formula 1 do not allow for accidents and mistakes, especially for smaller teams.
With this in mind, the team have decided to replace young Mick Schumacher with Nico Hulkenberg in a bid to reduce their expenditure caused by crashes, and climb back up into the midfield.
While Schumacher had undoubted potential, Haas could not afford to wait around for long-term results while the German proves inconstant and costly with his crashes.
Following his sacking from the American team, Mick Schumacher is rumoured to be heading to Mercedes to serve as a reserve driver for the team, with the Schumacher name having a rich history with the Silver Arrows.
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Mercedes team principal has admitted that Schumacher would be a strong candidate to replace the AlphaTauri-bound Nyck de Vries, and has jumped to the 23-year-old’s defence following Guenther Steiner’s public criticism of the German.
“Things can go against you in your first years in F1 and then he was under pressure to deliver and that doesn’t help,” explained Wolff when discussing Schumacher’s departure from Haas.
“F1 is brutal. Maybe in a way having a year off as a third driver, similar to what Daniel [Ricciardo] does, can be good to re-assess yourself and bring yourself in a better place, hopefully finding a better seat again.
“He always impressed me from his personality. The first time I met him, which was his first year in F3 at Hockenheim, he’s just a good person.
“He won F3, he won F2 and as I said before, that can’t come out of nowhere,” he concluded.
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Audi are reportedly sniffing around Schumacher for their 2026 entry to the sport, as a German driver with such a historic racing family could prove to be a key asset for the team when looking to attract sponsors for their team.
Schumacher’s uncle Ralf, who drove in Formula 1 during his racing career, has admitted that the chance for his nephew to learn from Mercedes and especially Lewis Hamilton, could be too good to turn down, despite the 23-year-old’s desire to get back on the grid as soon as possible.
Bernie Ecclestone has urged Schumacher to forget about F1 and move onto another racing series, but the German has claimed that he feels like he belongs in Formula 1, so will be doing everything in his power to bounce back from his Haas sacking and earn a race seat at another team in 2024.