Mick Schumacher lost his place in F1 when Guenther Steiner and Haas sacked him at the end of the 2022 season. Due to a lack of opportunities and teams wishing to gamble on his inexperience, he wasn’t able to find a new team. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff gave him a place in the Brackley-based outfit, and he is currently their reserve driver behind Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. However, when it comes to the future, Wolff can’t guarantee he will get a seat in F1, according to Soy Motor.
Replacing either Hamilton or Russell seems out of the question at the moment. Even though Hamilton’s contract is up at the end of the year, it is widely expected that he will continue. Elsewhere, the number of spots opening up is very less. Most of the moves that people think will materialize after this season, will just be in the form of a reshuffling.
Consequently, Schumacher, who is Wolff’s reserve driver for this year, might have to wait a long time to get bis shot at driving full-time in F1 again.
Toto Wolff gives up on Mick Schumacher returning to F1 in 2024
While Wolff doesn’t completely rule out Schumacher’s return for next season, he admits that it is going to be extremely difficult. Mercedes have three customer teams in F1- Aston Martin, McLaren, and Williams. For now, Wolff thinks that neither of these teams has an open spot.
“Certainly the situation is difficult for Mick,” said Wolff. “All the 2024 midfielders in our teams are busy and out. They all seem ‘glued’ to their place.”
Next year may turn out to be another gloomy year that Schumacher has to spend behind the scenes. However, Wolff feels that he has an outside chance of returning to the grid in 2025. The 51-year-old sees an opportunity opening up for him at Williams.
Life for Schumacher after leaving Haas
Schumacher made his F1 debut in 2021 with Haas, in what was an excruciatingly difficult year for the American team. They were nowhere close to getting into the points, and Schumacher’s only competition was Nikita Mazepin, whom he easily outperformed. This led to people being convinced of his talent to make it big in F1.
Next year, when the experienced Kevin Magnussen returned to Haas to become his new teammate, the cracks began to appear. Haas finally had a car that could fight for points, but it took Schumacher a lot of time to get used to the car. Plus, he added to Haas’ already depleted cost cap with his expensive crashes.
Since losing his place, he has been a part of Mercedes’ reserve team. The German driver is currently helping his home team with simulator work back at the factory as he looks to make a return to the limelight sooner rather than later.
