Mick Schumacher, Haas, Bahrain International Circuit, 2021

Schumacher’s place at Haas down to Ferrari, not sponsor – Steiner

2021 F1 season

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Haas selected Mick Schumacher as one of its new drivers this year on the strength of his performance in Formula 2, not in order to secure the backing of a sponsor, team principal Guenther Steiner has stated.

Steiner admitted last year the team was in a difficult financial situation following the disruption caused by the pandemic. Its new drivers for the 2021 F1 season have links to sources of income the team has obtained for the new season. Nikita Mazepin’ father runs Uralkali, the team’s new title sponsor.

Negotiations between Haas and another new sponsor, German internet services firm 1&1, were shown in the recent Netflix Drive to Survive documentary. The company was depicted as being keen to position their brand alongside a German driver.

However Steiner said Schumacher was chosen for his ability, rather than the income he attracted. “The 1&1 sponsorship is a Haas team sponsorship, it’s not a Mick sponsorship, just to clarify that,” he said.

“There is no direct connection between 1&1 and Mick. Obviously 1&1 embraces Mick being at Haas, but this was a parallel development, not a combined development.”

Schumacher won the F2 championship last year and is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy which eased his path into one of the Scuderia’s customer teams, Steiner explained.

“For sure it helped us with 1&1 and 1&1 is very happy about having Mick at Haas. But that, it was more like a decision from Ferrari where to send the drivers and we asked if we can have him because he won Formula 2. But it is not a direct negotiation going on between the company and Mick.”

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38 comments on “Schumacher’s place at Haas down to Ferrari, not sponsor – Steiner”

  1. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    2nd April 2021, 13:03

    I still think he should have been sent to Alfa Romeo and replaced Giovinazzi. Learning in a car that can occasionally fight for points alongside a former world champion I think would have granted more meaningful experience than toiling away in dead last fighting another rookie, and as the Haas is objectively worse than the Williams it’s unlikely he’ll even end up with some Russell-style heroics. If Ferrari consider Schumacher to be part of their future landing him in a squad where he’ll learn little seems weird.

    1. @rocketpanda I’d be inclined to disagree – you mention the Russell-style heroics – well Schumacher is in the same position that Russell was in last year – the worst car on the grid alongside a rookie. I see no reason why he can’t impress.

    2. Ferrari’s long road with Giovinazzi (as well as RB with Albon & Gasly) is probably why MSC2 is at Hass.

    3. @rocketpanda He wouldn’t necessarily have had to replace Gio specifically, but even Kimi.
      @Delphi Albon long road at RB? Not really, as he got axed from the driver program long before F1 (2012) and only got a chance because the program lacked available options at the time, which isn’t the case anymore.

      1. @jerejj GIO/Ferrari win in real-time but just Albon’s last dozen races were a saga, long road like The Ring is a long opera.

        1. win = was in

      2. Kimi’s had a 2+1 contract, the 3rd year being an option that either side could just say that they’ll take it. So they would’ve had to try to buy Kimi out of the contract and he could’ve just said “no thanks”.

  2. Glad they could justify they got Mick in mostly for the talent and partly for the financial gain.

    Now let’s see Steiner make a comment on Mazepin’s addition to the team…

  3. Is Deutsche Vermögensberatung also sponsoring Mick?
    I don’t recall having seen their name on any caps/etc.

    The fact that I (and probably many others) still recall their sponsorship of Michael means that it was a very successful one.
    A bit like Niki with …. (Oops, I forgot that one; not a good example).

    1. Jockey Ewing
      2nd April 2021, 14:40

      Googling: “mick schumacher vermögensberatung” has a good amonts of hits confirming that he is sponsored by them. Although I’m quite sure that I have read news about it at about a month before. On his baseball cap their logo is visible also, if you choose Images at the search.

      Yes DVAG was a major sponsor of Michael too, I guess some similar German sponsors might be attracted. 1&1 telecommounications company is another likely major sponsor which turned some colors on Mick’s overall or hat blue. So I have found images with red DVMG hat, and some bit newer images with blue 1&1 hat. He will switch beteween the red and blue hats per race weekend, or 1&1 took over as a major sponsor and so the cap will be blue?

      Interesting, I expected if Mick and Mazepin will wear a red and a blue hat, then Mazepin will wear the blue, yet it is a strange sight.

      1. I mean, they also sponsored Hulk for a bit.

      2. Thanks @Jockey Ewing,
        I did check some recent Mick Schumacher Haas images but didn’t see the DVAG logos, whereas I know he had it in the past on his red caps when with Prema/FDA.
        It appears (googling more) that DVAG is on the side of the blue 1&1 cap though.

    2. @coldfly

      It was Parmalat with Niki Lauda, then Novomatic

    3. @coldfly The ‘Deutsche Vermögensberatung’ on Michael and Nico’s hats is very iconic, I can picture it instantly, and remember wondering what it was when it appeared on Michaels hats, but the reality is I don’t know who they are (I could google it now, but for the sake of making a point, I won’t) they’ve never entered ‘my sphere’ and I’ve lived on four continents, so I’m not their target market, yet I cannot mistake their logo.

      I get the ‘German’ bit at the start (I think this is the second time in two weeks I’ve had to say I don’t speak German), I’m not going to even have a go pronouncing ‘Vermögensberatung’, let alone guess what it means.

      1. It means German financial advisors.

  4. Yeah.. I don’t know about that. Haas can claim that it wasn’t about money, but would they really have signed Mick if there was no financial benefit at all, none whatsoever? My guess is that they wouldn’t have.

    1. Neil Debacquer
      2nd April 2021, 18:29

      Who would be driving for Haas then? Hulkenberg? You could argue the same thing with Giovinazzi at Alfa. They apparently wanted an Italian driver otherwise they would’ve stopped their sponsorship.

    2. pastaman (@)
      3rd April 2021, 14:10

      Every driver on the grid has financial benefit for their team, Guenther’s point is that he is not a pay driver.

  5. So, that confirms it. Mick’s place at Haas is down to the sponsor.

    1. And Ferrari allowing it.

      1. Well Ferrari is sponsoring Mick’s career, so…

        1. Yeah, exactly this @jureo

          Mick’s sponsor is, for the most part, Ferrari. The integration of Haas into Ferrari comes with a spot for Mick.

          Whatever personal sponsors Mick has, won’t be moving the needle in comparison to that “partnership” with Ferrari.

    2. Neil Debacquer
      2nd April 2021, 14:43

      So you’re saying he doesn’t deserve his seat?

    3. Jockey Ewing
      2nd April 2021, 14:51

      Sometimes it is not a bad idea to give a seat or at least a shot for F2 champions, before the series will look disfunctional because of being F2 turned into an expensive develpoment series, and quite rarely doing so. And this is all done by the FIA, or at least approved by them.

      Or do you really expected that he, with his surname, will be iced for a long while despite of achieveing better results, and having better career trajectory than many of the F1 debutants of the last 2 decades? At about half of them were easily worse looking. Do you think sponsoring Michael Schumacher’s son at Germany is a bad idea? At worst it is a mediocre idea, if he functions, it start to be better than good.

      1. Jockey Ewing
        2nd April 2021, 19:41

        For worse: the champion of F2 can not continue in the series, so if can not step up to F1 then, missing out one year at such young age might ends one’s career at open wheelers. Where could such champion go if wants to race formula cars? I guess FIA approved F3 is maybe outruled by the rules as well. Then Indy and Super Formula would be the best options.
        Or the rule is only stating that the champion can not return to F2 at the next season, or how long while? It would feel quite strange if F2 champions could not ever return to F2, not even for occasional appearances? Are F1 drivers outruled as well? Because Roberto Merhi raced at F2 for a while after F1. So I find this rule only partially meaningful (let’s provide opportunity to others as well), or something to rethink (in the case of can-not-ever).

    4. lol, thanks for making me laugh ! Exactly what I was thinking ;-)

      1. Thanx @HAL, you’re the only one who got it….

  6. If the reigning Formula 2 champion hasn’t earned his place in F1, then you might as well scrap the whole feeder structure.

    1. A reigning champion deserves a shot, but if there was no financial benefit in signing Mick, they’d surely would have signed someone else to bring in money.

  7. Well. Let’s wait and see what is his caliber. As of money. A dream come true for German companies. Checo going to RB resulted in many companies hiring him for promotion.

  8. Still say Mick alongside Kimi was a no-brainer for him long term, and was Ferrari politics to appease Hass to stay in the Ferrari camp.

    Fazazz Management & Policy is always transparent. One might say clear as mud 😉

    1. I think Haas might work for him evem better. He’ll have a no-pressure first year in F1 as nobody expects anything from Haas this year. This can be good for him, because historically it has taken awhile for him to adapt to a new series.

      His second year will be with Alfa Romeo, replacing Kimi. There he can show his performance and at the end of that year there will be an opening in Ferrari. It’ll be between him and Sainz to decide which one gets it.

      1. @pejuee He’s on a “multi-year deal” at Haas, so he should be staying for 2022 at least (and I think the same goes for Mazepin).

        1. Well there goes the great plan. Now it seems just stupid the way they have done this. :D Is it just because Gio is an Italian and you need to have an Italian..?

      2. Kimi knows Ferrari and car set-up. Together sans equine excreta – priceless.
        Freddie would give time, out of sheer respect for Micheal, and for the fact that dad is not able to mentor.
        No matter how one dresses it up, history dictates that Ferrari are masters at shooting themselves up the @$$.

        1. Yeah.. I guess it’s all political and the end result is then whatever it is after the political battle. I suppose Gio being an Italian is a huge factor here.

  9. Mick Schumacher is more deserving of his F1 seat than Nikita Mazepin, that’s for sure. Mazepin probably shouldn’t have been in F1 at all if you ask me.

    Like Stroll, however, despite performing badly, he might still get years and years to get it right and become somewhat decent. That’s the privilege of having an extremely rich daddy.

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