Haas F1 Team owner Gene Haas says Mick Schumacher “needs to bring some points” if he is to keep his seat at the team into 2023.
Schumacher has raced with Haas for the last two seasons but is currently out of contract for 2023. He sits 16th in the drivers’ championship with 12 points – just over half the total of team mate Kevin Magnussen.Speaking to the Associated Press during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race in Las Vegas, Haas said that Schumacher’s future with the team “is going to be decided by Mick.”
“We need Mick to bring some points and we’re trying to give him as much time as possible to see what he can do,” said Haas.
“If he wants to stay with us, he’s got to show us that he can score some more points. That’s what we are waiting for.”
Schumacher suffered two heavy crashes early in his second season at the team in Jeddah and Monaco. He crashed again in the last round at Suzuka, spinning into a barrier while driving back to the pits at the end of a wet first practice session.
He believes that Schumacher has the ability to succeed in Formula 1, but his performance so far this season has not been good enough for him to look past Schumacher’s mistakes.
“I think Mick has got a lot of potential, but you know he costs a fortune and he’s wrecked a lot of cars that have cost us a lot of money that we just don’t have,” Haas said. “Now, if you bring us some points, and you are [Max] Verstappen and you wreck cars, we’ll deal with it. But when you are in the back and you wreck cars, that’s very difficult.”
Asked if Schumacher will have the final four rounds of the season to make his case to remain with the team, Haas said: “well, if he wins the next one, he’s in. Somewhere in between there is a grey area.”
Haas is one of two teams yet to confirms its 2023 F1 driver line-up, the other being Williams.
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Jere (@jerejj)
17th October 2022, 11:08
Being unable to score points for a few rounds (likewise MAG equally) has been out of his control.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th October 2022, 11:25
@jerejj I could’ve formed the MAG reference in a more accurately interpretable way like ‘besides, MAG hasn’t scored points either for a little while.’
Jere (@jerejj)
17th October 2022, 11:26
I apparently tagged myself inadvertently.
HAL
18th October 2022, 9:27
Yeah, overall Mick hasn’t put the world on fire and so far seems to be missing that waouw factor that help young driver to settle their reputation. But while his performance at the beginning of the year were dreadfull, he drastically improved to the point of matching Kevin’s perf. Again, matching MAG is not “amazing”, but it’s not bad either, is it ?
So then we have the crashes… 3 crashes over the season is not great, but not that dramatic. Unfortunately these were big ones, so costly, but for a driver in his second year I find the judgement from HaaS to be quite severe.
At the end of day, frankly, it gives the impression that they decided early in the year (when his perf were bad) to drop Mick and they are now struggling to justify their position…
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
17th October 2022, 11:10
I know people like Steiner because of memes, but boy do I ever find this team unlikable. They want to run in F1 on a shoestring budget, with some help from Ferrari and/or dubious sponsors to minimize the cost to Gene. And then you’re going to complain if your driver has a crash or two?
Guess what, you’re a team together, your driver is driving on the limit in a car that’s not exactly the best and most balanced around a tight street circuit in the wet and he got it slightly wrong. Tough luck, suck it up. Mick doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment from you, honestly. If you want to sack him for underperforming, do so, but stop using money as an excuse.
I do have to wonder why Andretti is not good enough to participate in this sport and has to prove themselves, but Gene Haas was allowed into Formula 1 with this model of outsourcing their entire car build without issue.
S
17th October 2022, 12:15
Haas entered F1 prior to it becoming an (official) franchise system….
If they tried to enter as a new team today, they’d meet the same resistance as Andretti. Probably more.
The only new participants F1 wants are manufacturers – and even then, they’d prefer that they bought out an existing team rather than attempting to create an 11th one.
Steiner? The guy’s got more personality than the entire driver AND executive line-up at Mercedes. Haas are doing a much better job than most of F1’s smaller teams in the past. Cut them some slack.
Besides, F1 benefits from teams that are rarely front-runners – just as every other series does. Minardi was one of the most popular, for example, despite their lack of budget and success – or more accurately, in large part because of it.
And Schumacher – crashes (and we aren’t just talking about 1 or 2 here) simply aren’t necessary – especially given where that car sits in the field. The team can’t develop it (or the next one) as much as they’d like when so much of their budget is tied up in making replacement parts due to silly crashes… They don’t even reach the budget cap, remember.
Patrick
17th October 2022, 14:56
I find Steiner’s public comments and innuendo’s regarding Schumacher very distasteful. I actually hope Mick gets offered a job with Williams and takes it.
JungleMartin
17th October 2022, 19:07
Perhaps you do, but this article is quoting Gene Haas, not Steiner.
Qeki (@qeki)
17th October 2022, 20:36
@sjaakfoo I agree he shouldn’t say those of things publicly. In the end it his own money that’s on the line. I would be angry too if someone would throw part of my money to the air. Yes F1 is a risky business and something tells me Schumacher isn’t the favorite to continue with them
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
17th October 2022, 11:23
I’m sure Mick wants better strategy decisions from the Haas team.
faulty (@faulty)
17th October 2022, 14:33
Third comment.
And I completely agree.
cosan (@cosan)
17th October 2022, 11:24
He has made some mistakes, but the team also has ruined his chances for points on some occasions. Sometimes its like sabotaging him. At suzuka they should have tried the extreme strategy on magnussen that was behind him and outside of the points. For sure he is not like his father, but he is deserving to be in F1. I dont thin gio or hulk has something more to offer.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
17th October 2022, 11:58
Giovinazzi never crashed out once in his final season in F1. Schumacher crashed more in a fraction of that time, ans still causes far more damage now. In terms of crash damage, Schumacher is a fair bit worse than Mazepin was. I think Giovinazzi overall will be an upgrade on him. He has been working with Ferrari and Vettel in the past has thanked him for the work he’s done in their simulator which apparently helped improve the car.
cosan (@cosan)
17th October 2022, 12:09
Yes but he was 28 with racing expirience in F1 since 2017. It was his third full season. His race performances was mediacore at best. Next year he will be 30, whats the point in bringing him back. Mick is still young and improving.
Aaa123
17th October 2022, 13:43
I don’t buy the idea of Mick improving really – can’t one say many of the incidents this season have been caused by him not recognising his/car’s limit? He simply doesn’t seem to have that occasionally searing pace that eg. Maldonado or Hulk would occasionally bring which arguably saved their careers a few times.
I was a big fan of Giovinazzi after his pretty incredible peak gp2/f2 season but he’s been something of a flatline in f1 sadly…is there anyone other than Hulk who will bring in a decent 40-50% points race season more or less guaranteed on the market right now?
Hardly a step forward for F1 if he returns but that constructor’s prize money may well be the lifeblood of this particular team…
Jere (@jerejj)
17th October 2022, 13:53
@Aaa123 Hulk would likely be even less of an improvement than Gio, considering how long he’s been away from active racing.
Ultimately, keeping Mick would be the best & safest option, certainly versus both Gio & Hulk, unless Danny Ric changed his mind, which one implied in a recent Round-Up.
cosan (@cosan)
17th October 2022, 14:51
After his bad begining of the season Mick is close behind or in front of Magnussen. In my opinion the 36 year old Hulk after 3 seasons out of the sport hasnt got something more to offer. I dont think the problem at HAAS are their drivers.
Aaa123
17th October 2022, 15:36
Aye I personally don’t feel that Hulk would be the best option though Danny wouldn’t take the drive in a million years – based on his early season subs I would say he’s still got at least some pace but it’s a leap to say he’ll even have that next year. Add to that his (I presume) not bringing much sponsor backing and the short term nature of his signing and things fall apart somewhat. OTOH part of me would like him to come back and fluke into a third place at Suzuka or some other old style track. In a parallel universe where PDVSA didn’t go under Maldonado would be getting a call from Gene right now…
jff
17th October 2022, 19:22
Yes, getting close to seven months now :P
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
17th October 2022, 21:23
Giovinazzi’s age is irrelevent. He had been improving and was at least somewhat decent, and certainly was a reliable driver that wasn’t prone to crashes from the last we saw of him. With haas short of cash, a more reliable driver may well be better than a crash prone and sometimes fast one. Plus Giovinazzi has a lot of cash behind him. Schumacher has only had a few good drives this season, but has had a huge quantity of crashes. (giovinazzi certainly has some good ones in 2021 and far less bad ones) I don’t think Magnussen has been all that good either, and Schumacher beating him sometimes isn’t that much of an archivement.
I don’t think there is a massive difference between them all factoring everything in out of giovinazzi, schumacher and Hulkenberg, for different reasons.
Schumacher has the advantage of having the most recent experience witht the team, but he still seems to drive the car half the time like he’s a rookie. Giovinazzi has worked with ferrari who are closely linked with Haas and he’s only had one season away from the sport, and his last season was quite reasonable with no crashes in any races at all. That’s more than even Hulkenberg could manage as he crashed out once or twice in his latest season. Then while he’s been the reerve driver once or twice, he hasn’t had a full season for years now, and I can’t see him being a better option than Giovinazzi, but we all can have different views.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th October 2022, 12:40
On the other hand @thegianthogweed, he also hardly ever showed signs of remarkable drives and while he did get to beat Kimi more often towards the end of the former Champions’ career, he was hardly a super promising prospect in the car either.
Now, I am not saying Schumacher is doing a superb job. But there have been too many times this year when neither Haas driver was able to achieve anything, and it was more down to the car than their own performance. And Schumacher did do pretty well vs. Magnussen in several races this year already, certainly is starting to get a grip after looking spooked by it at the start of the year.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
17th October 2022, 12:49
Antonio Giovinazzi managed to crash out repeatedly when subbing for Pascal Wehrlein, including one of the stupidest-looking crashes in modern F1 history.
anon
17th October 2022, 21:14
@thegianthogweed as noted by others, there does seem to be a sense of indifference towards Giovinazzi’s performances at Sauber – the impression seems to be that, whilst he did OK, his longer term growth seemed to peter out, despite how impressive he had been in junior series, and there were criticisms about a lack of consistency in his race performances.
Whilst it is true that Giovinazzi has been complimented for his technical skills and development work in the simulator, with 62 races under his belt, Giovinazzi kinds of sits in a bit of an odd spot in terms of experience – not the same amount of races as some of the more veteran drivers, but at the same time not enough to necessarily give a decisive edge over some of the rookie drivers in the sport. There is also the question of whether Giovinazzi would bring that much to the team if Magnussen is already filling that role, to some extent, at Haas.
sumedh
17th October 2022, 12:19
Ha! Pretty much writing on the wall for Mick then
F1 frog (@f1frog)
17th October 2022, 12:38
Mick Schumacher made some poor mistakes earlier in the season, crashing in Jeddah and Monaco and hitting Vettel in Miami, but pretty much from Canada onwards he has improved to the point that he is now generally the better Haas driver, in my opinion, and although Nico Hulkenberg would be an update on either of their current drivers, I think a Hulkenberg-Schumacher lineup would probably be their best option if they hadn’t already signed Magnussen for next season. In fact, according to my driver ratings, out of ten for each round, Magnussen and Schumacher have rated equally this season if Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are ignored, meaning that since round three Schumacher has done as well as Magnussen despite less experience.
I hope Schumacher signs for Williams alongside Alex Albon for next year, as I do think Hulkenberg is good enough to deserve a return, but I also think that Schumacher has done enough to deserve to stay in F1.
And that would give so many pairings for next year that are difficult to call who will be ahead. Hamilton vs Russell, Gasly vs Ocon, De Vries vs Tsunoda, Hulkenberg vs Magnussen and Albon vs Schumacher would all be very close. Maybe even Bottas vs Zhou as well if their current form continues. Verstappen and Leclerc will probably still have the upper hand over Perez and Sainz, while I can’t see Piastri matching Norris in his first season, or Stroll being close to Alonso.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th October 2022, 12:42
Yes, agree both schumacher and hulkenberg deserve to be in f1 atm.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th October 2022, 13:56
@f1frog I disagree with Hulk being an update on either.
If anything, the opposite effect, considering he’s semi-retired on the active racing front.
He had his time, so a return for most likely a single season after three years without any active racing generally would be pointless.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th October 2022, 12:40
This looks very unfair, magnussen hasn’t been able to score points too apart from early season, when the car was relatively better; the crime here is not being up to speed early in the season for schumacher.
Crash damage thing makes sense, but other drivers can crash too, and he’s still in his 2nd year, I don’t really like the haas team, wouldn’t mind them going bankrupt and leaving f1 tbh.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th October 2022, 12:42
If we take crash damage in account though, @esploratore1, they should also be hard on Magnussen for ruining his own race several times already by damaging the front wing in agressive moves attacking or defending early in races (2 times? Or was it 3 times already?) where he seemed to have a decent shot at a points finish were it not for dropping back with a wing change (and penalties).
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
17th October 2022, 13:17
But calling Kevin in to get the damage repaired was totally unfair, just ask his pal Günther. 🤣
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th October 2022, 8:05
But to be honest those damages are very minor and repairable with glue while Mick trashed a car twice. I am afraid it’s the end for Mick with Haas. Mick with his experience should scored massive points in the beginning of the season but he didn’t and got his Ass wipped by someone who left racing for more then 1 year.
Normal Mick get better during the seasons but i see no improvement after 3 years.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th October 2022, 14:56
That’s true, he was over-aggressive in some situations such as spain, where he ruined his own race and made hamilton’s harder too, however like the others said he didn’t damage the car as much as schumacher; I hope the money excuse is actually true, cause I can’t justify this decision on performance.
floodo1 (@floodo1)
17th October 2022, 14:22
I find it irritating hearing F1 teams talk about the cost of crashes.
jff
17th October 2022, 19:26
Why do you find that irritating?
Especially when you’re on a limited budget I can understand that it’s frustrating to spend money on repairing a car rather than developing it.
MacLeod (@macleod)
18th October 2022, 8:06
Repairing isn’t a issue replacing parts does matter.
thegamer23
17th October 2022, 15:00
He was P7 in Canada before engine fail.
P8 in Zanvdoort before strategy suicide, P9 in Hungary before 10 sec long pit stop and than P10 in Suzuka before wet tyre gamble.
Haas itself is costing Mick those points, and Steiner & co acts like it’s all his fault.
Weird team management, terrible driver management.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th October 2022, 15:15
I don’t think Mick has what it takes, but equally, I don’t understand Haas at all… What has Magnussen done to deserve a long term deal? other than some flashes of speed at the beginning of the year when the car was in its strongest form compared to the rest of the grid, he’s been just as underwhelming as before he left F1.
I don’t think Haas as a whole makes a huge load of sense. It’s like they are on the grid just to show they are “part of it” instead of actually making some kind of progress. They left the whole of last year as a preparation year yet they did almost no development during this season. They have a crash-prone rookie and a guy that’s way past it, and the rumours are a pairing with Hulkenberg, another guy that’s not a long term prospect in any way…
JA
17th October 2022, 22:54
Magnussens deal was done prior to the season start and those flashes have earned them a good amount of points. What he did to earn it? Some great driving in 17, 18 and some flashes in 19 with a completely non-competetive car – or at least their understanding of the tyres and setup that year.
There is one thing you should have started to notice about Magnussen as of now. Give him a car that can compete and he competes, no matter the name he is up against (also with the damage that it can cause). Give him a car that can’t compete and he will show you he isn’t some second coming of Alonso in a McLaren Honda.
These past two years they have used more than 5 million euros just on Schumachers crashes, money that was supposed to go into developement. We don’t know how much money they use to supply the parts they don’t manufacture themselves. If it is like anywhere else its normally more costly to purchase goods instead of producing them yourself, but it is more costly to setup a factory to start the manufactoring.
DaveW (@dmw)
17th October 2022, 15:30
I don’t have a full list of his wrecks but crashing in jeddah and Monaco and crashing in the wet at Suzuka don’t seem a mark of incompetence.
I feel like people like Vettel verstappen and Hamilton binned a lot of cars in their early days. Don’t recall hearing anyone say, they need to crash less because of money.
MichaelN
17th October 2022, 20:42
Vettel and Hamilton were driving at teams who poured multiple times Haas’ budget into a single year, and have complained loud and often about being ‘only’ able to spend about 3 million per week on their F1 team.
Haas on the other hand is doing F1 on the tightest budget possible, and is nowhere near the budget cap, so room for costly repairs due to Schumacher’s incidents involves either cutting spending elsewhere, or increasing the money Haas has to put into his F1 team – which he apparently doesn’t isn’t too keen on.
Patrick (@paeschli)
18th October 2022, 12:50
Nobody is forcing them to run Schumacher. They can bring a new driver for next race if they want to.
Publicly putting down your driver is a weird move.
Coventry Climax
18th October 2022, 22:12
No it’s not. That has happened many times before, with nearly all teams, it’s a warning and serves to put pressure on the driver to -finally- start delivering or clear out the desk.
Let’s face it, Mick may appear to be an amiable guy (none of us really know though), but that’s not enough to earn an F1 seat. As for the other, relevant criteria, he simply fails to meet any of those. Full stop. Exit Mick. If it weren’t for his name, the closest he’d ever be to an F1 car would have been when looking at his dad’s collection.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
17th October 2022, 16:41
Steiner is leveraging his job at Mick’s expense. Steiner has to go. He can’t run the team, you can’t divert and pin the shortcomings of this season on Mick’s crashes alone.
jff
17th October 2022, 19:28
It seems you have missed that this article is only quoting Gene Haas; Steiner is not even mentioned.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
17th October 2022, 20:59
Why do you think I posted this? Steiner has planted the seed, Haas complains, Steiner deflects.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
17th October 2022, 21:47
@peartree You’re projecting. It is sad, because your comments are usually so well considered LOL.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
18th October 2022, 3:59
@ferrox-glideh not a Mick fan but I’m “projecting” since suzuka when Steiner complained, again, about Mick after fp1, the complaints are fair but I did not like Steiner’s tone, szafnauerish. Making Mick the scapegoat, which annoyed me to no end. The scapegoat then qualified 5 places above Magnussen, the look on Steiner’s face was priceless.
paulsf1fix
17th October 2022, 17:26
Question is what are Haas going to announce on Thursday?
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
17th October 2022, 18:43
New major sponsor.
Let’s hope they scored a real one this time.
Casanova (@casanova)
17th October 2022, 18:32
Particularly at the start of the season, that Haas looked horrible to drive. Mick has driven well with the equipment he has had available to him.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
18th October 2022, 2:23
They need to get rid of the guy who said he was prepared to die on the race track.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
18th October 2022, 4:03
What a plot twist.
I hate when all fans and drivers treat Mick like a golden son and close their eyes that Mick is not something special. But Gene Haas comment coming at a time that Mick actually getting better is just as weird. It only confirms that Haas has had a deal with Hulkenberg.
I think cost cap starting to show its consequences. Every team need to limit accidents. Hiring mediocre driver like Hulkenberg maybe laughable but he’s a bit a save pair of hands.
Looks like that all year support from the fans and drivers leads Mick to believe that every team wants him. It all came to Abu Dhabi, if Logan Sargeant can secure his license points, I think Williams prefer him than Schumacher. The chances of Mick seat in 2023 is really bleak.
Sacha Gortchakoff (@gosac)
18th October 2022, 6:58
I very rarely witnessed such sort of cacophony / mixed messaging — in such short frequency — by a team, towards his own player.
Maybe they really need just bucks ?
Maybe he should just organise these bucks
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
18th October 2022, 8:14
He’s scored more than Magnussen in the second half of the season. That’s all I’ll say.
Patrick (@paeschli)
18th October 2022, 12:47
It’s your team Gene, if you want to replace him starting next race, do so.
But complaining to the press that competing in F1 is expensive does not solve anything.
Shimks (@shimks)
18th October 2022, 15:38
I don’t mean the following comment with any disrespect.
I am very surprised that with the amount of money Mick’s mother must have, it wouldn’t have been a problem to pay for 100 crashes. I am very surprised that Mick’s career in F1 – if not supported by stellar performances – is not going to be bankrolled by his family for as many years as he likes.
grapmg
18th October 2022, 17:51
I’m sure they will announce the same drivers again like they always did with Grosjean and Magnussen after Steiner trash talked them. Probably Schumacher has to bring some milions but we will never know.
Delphi
19th October 2022, 11:49
There’s a whiff of that around it all right.