After Haas showed the exit door to Mick Schumacher at the end of the 2022 F1 season, the Schumacher family started publicly slamming their team principal Guenther Steiner and the American outfit as a whole. Now, David Schumacher, the cousin of the ousted driver has revealed the actual reason why the 2020 F2 champ had to leave the team.
After spending two years at Haas, Schumacher’s exit from the Kannapolis-based team was rather unceremonious. Steiner, who was very critical of the driver revealed that he was sacked solely because of his disappointing performances.
Mick Schumacher will leave Haas at the end of the season#F1 pic.twitter.com/Tnz004sRS0
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 17, 2022
The current Mercedes reserve driver failed to pick up any points in his rookie season, and could only manage 12 points in the next. Additionally, he had several huge crashes on the track in 2022. This added to the damage bills of a team, which was already low on financial resources.
However, Schumacher did have some very memorable moments in the team. Still, in the end, Steiner decided to not renew his contract with the team. Now, David Schumacher thinks that Steiner and Haas didn’t give his cousin enough time to grow.
Mick Schumacher’s cousin revealed why Haas let him go
Mick Schumacher was sacked after spending just two years with the team and the driver’s cousin knows the reason behind it. According to GP Fans, he revealed, “Mick’s problem was that he couldn’t really compete with his teammate Nikita Mazepin in his debut year.”
“But as a young driver, you urgently need that in order to develop. Only in his second year did he have a strong driver as a teammate in Kevin Magnussen,” he added .
M. Schumacher. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/bEMBwXUzAP
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 16, 2023
Talking about why the 24-year-old did not learn anything with Nikita Mazepin, he remarked, “Both were newcomers, and Mazepin, who he dominated, was no benchmark.” All in all, the entire 2021 season did not help Mick Schumacher to develop as a driver.
Mick Schumacher after the Haas days
Following his exit from Haas, Schumacher moved to Brackley to join Mercedes. The Silver Arrows’ team principal Toto Wolff gave him a reserve role in the team, where he acts as an understudy to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
On one side he is getting to learn from his seniors in the sport, and on the other hand, he is getting world-class facilities and mentorship from Wolff, one of the most successful team bosses of all time.
As of now, Schumacher is still waiting for his next real shot at reigniting his F1 career. There are no seats available for him in the grid at the moment. However, with several moves expected to take place over the course of the next few months, Schumacher will be keeping his fingers crossed.