At the end of the 2022 F1 season, Haas showed Mick Schumacher the exit door and brought in Nico Hulkenberg to replace him. With no active seats available for the 2023 season, Schumacher joined Mercedes as a reserve driver. Now, after spending one full season with the Silver Arrows, he is being advised to leave the team to “demonstrate his skills.”
Schumacher has been given the role of the reserve driver for this season and is working as an understudy to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. So far, the German star has gained significant praise from Toto Wolff and Co. for the work he doing at Brackley.
Signing off after an emotional first day @fosgoodwood. 🤗#ShotonSnapdragon @Snapdragon pic.twitter.com/mB8wckBxd4
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 16, 2023
Despite all the praise on him, Schumacher has next to no chance of getting an F1 seat for the upcoming season. This is the reason the former Haas driver has been advised to leave Mercedes and tMick Schumacher Advised to Free Himself From Toto Wolff’s Team After ‘To Demonstrate His Skills’ in F1ry his luck elsewhere to demonstrate his skills.
Former German F1 driver has advice for Mick Schumacher
Hans-Joachim Stuck has recently opened up on Mick Schumacher’s prolonged reserve role at Mercedes. He urged the driver not to settle down in the same role for successive years.
Speaking about this, Stuck said to Eurosport, “In his current job, Schumacher simply has to tough it out. Undoubtedly, he’s learning a lot right now, with both tests and simulator work. But how he’ll secure a race seat is still uncertain.”
That was fun, @SchumacherMick. 😊 pic.twitter.com/jOOi5Nc9qm
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 16, 2023
“If you can’t showcase and prove yourself in races, you unfortunately quickly fade from the public eye. Therefore, a second year of testing would not be beneficial for him,” he further added.
At the same time, Stuck also slammed Haas’ principal Guenther Steiner for how he treated Schumacher last season. He threw shade on how the American team’s boss did not allow the young German driver to grow with the team.
What’s Schumacher’s future from here on?
Apart from Toto Wolff, there were multiple experts who praised Schumacher for his role at Mercedes. Several of them also believe that the 24-year-old deserves a seat in Formula 1 for the talent he has.
However, he needs to find his seat all by himself. Even though he is learning a lot at Mercedes, in the end, it all comes down to the exposure he gets out on the track. Mick Schumacher, who still has a long way to go, needs to find a way to have that.
For the time being, there are reports of the German star having a seat in the 2024 F1 season. Wolff reportedly tried to grab him one at the Red Bull fraternity. Unfortunately, Helmut Marko snubbed this possibility.
