Mercedes has confirmed its reserve driver Mick Schumacher will not continue with the team after the end of this season.
Schumacher, son of seven-times world champion Michael, has been Mercedes’ reserve since the beginning of the 2023 season.Despite not having to be called upon to step in for either Lewis Hamilton or George Russell over those two seasons, Schumacher has been present at most grands prix in the Mercedes garage and taken part in simulator work and testing with previous cars (TPC) tests with older Mercedes F1 cars.
After Mercedes chose not to replace the departing Hamilton with Schumacher for 2025 – instead selecting rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli – Schumacher will now leave his role at Mercedes following next weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The team’s former driver Valtteri Bottas, who will leave Sauber at the end of the year, has been tipped to return to the team as a reserve.
Schumacher thanked Mercedes for making him the team’s reserve but admitted he wanted to focus all his energy on racing opportunities, such as his role as a race driver for Alpine’s factory hypercar team in the World Endurance Championship.
“[Mercedes] have undoubtedly made me a more experienced racing driver because I have got to know the engineering side better,” said Schumacher. “But watching these cars race and not sitting in the cockpit myself is tough.
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“I want to get back to focusing 100% on racing. I want to be fully committed to the sporting side of motorsport. Ultimately, it is racing that you want to do as a driver, it is racing that gives you that feeling you love.”
“Mick’s hard work, diligence, and determination in his role as reserve driver has been vital for the team over the past two years,” Wolff said. “From day one, he fitted into the team with ease and has become an incredibly well-liked colleague for everyone at Brackley and Brixworth.
“However, Mick is first and foremost a racing driver. We have seen from both his time in F1, and this year with his performances in the World Endurance Championship, that he is a racer of an incredibly high calibre and one that deserves to be competing in the very best championships. As he moves on to his next challenge, I would like to thank Mick personally for his contribution to our team and we all wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”
Schumacher raced for two seasons in Formula 1 with Haas in 2021 and 2022 after winning the F2 title in 2020. After he was beaten in the championship by returning veteran team mate Kevin Magnussen in 2022, Haas decided to replace Schumacher with Nico Hulkenberg for 2023.
Over 43 grand prix starts, Schumacher scored a total of 12 points – all in his second season in 2023 – just under half the total of team mate Magnussen. His career best result came in that year’s Austrian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth.
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SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 12:54
I’d like a list of each team’s sim drivers since that’s actually more important than their reserve driver, unless they both. Some reserve drivers don’t which means often a reserve driver title means little, especially with multiple teams sharing one. I know Mick did, in fact, do a lot of sim work.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th November 2024, 13:15
I don’t know if teams necessarily have sim drivers per se anymore as more or less all reserve drivers tend to do sim work as well these days, so effectively the same thing by definition rather than not.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
28th November 2024, 14:30
@jerejj But there are still other drivers who work as sim drivers, without any intention of being a reserve driver, for example Anthony Davidson who supposedly still does a lot of sim work for Mercedes.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th November 2024, 15:11
@keithedin SPArtacus
Indeed & fully valid points.
Yes, Davidson does or at least has done sim work for Mercedes, & at least Jake Dennis has been similarly more dedicated to sim work at Red Bull Racing, to name another example, with some unknown ones indeed also in the mix.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 15:00
As Keith says, many of the core sim drivers are drivers we’ve never heard of and are not trying to get into F1. It’s basically their specialty. I can’t remember where and when, but maybe two years ago I remember seeing a short clip with an F1 sim driver and they mentioned how many hours they put in on the sim and it was a ton. Not surprising since they invest tens-of-millions to build, maintain and evolve their sims.
As for the reserve drivers doing sim work, that was partly my point, Jere. Some reserve drivers are heavily involved in the sim role, but some do little to none. And I’m confident that all the teams have what amounts to dedicated sim drivers with some being drivers we know. Some aren’t.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th November 2024, 13:12
So Bottas & Vesti will be the team’s 2025 reserve drivers.
Nevertheless, Mick’s departure is unsurprising, given the F1 train realistically left from him after last season already, & for that matter, Vandoorne, even more so, should finally also accept reality & focus on active racing entirely as his full-time return chances disappeared after 2020 at the latest.
stefano (@alfa145)
28th November 2024, 13:45
There’s still Cadillac, and the plenty of rookies going around that might disappoint half season
Jere (@jerejj)
28th November 2024, 15:21
@alfa145 He hasn’t been racing in F1 since the 2018 season ended, so too long for someone who hasn’t achieved anything in F1 & doesn’t even have vast experience, like Hulkenberg, who returned after three years without competing in F1 full-time.
Therefore, his chances are absolutely non-existent, especially with quite a few vastly more experienced drivers available whose F1 racing experience will only be a recent past thing by 2026, i.e., Bottas, Magnussen, Ricciardo.
Vandoorne (as well as Giovinazzi, Mick, & many others, for that matter) simply failed to show he’s worthy of another chance, so thinking Cadillac would give that with many better options available is pointless.
While I think Ricciardo & Magnussen won’t compete in F1 again in the future, the former at least has won GPs, which is also true for Bottas.
Add Perez in the same mix as the above trio as well if he gets sacked by Red Bull after the season, with the key factor against him being that his performance level relative to the car available has been the worst among these four, which makes him more deserving of losing a drive than the other three.
However, he’d also still have at least some chance for Cadillac in any case, unlike those who failed to show they’re worthy of a second chance.
Just the cold reality.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 15:03
Vandoorne won the Formula E title and I think maybe nabbed a Le Mans win. So, he’s not there because he’s hoping to get back into F1. Presumably, it’s just an additional paycheck. And, speaking of sim drivers, maybe they find him useful in that role. And he was Alonso’s teammate. So, he may know his preferences and obviously is already has a relationship with him.
MichaelN
28th November 2024, 16:52
He finished 3rd in 2019 and then 2nd in class in 2021, but no wins.
Your point still stands though, he’s done plenty of racing outside of F1 since he lost his seat.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
28th November 2024, 14:51
Valtteri was always a fantastic reserve driver.
Even when he thought that they might let him win.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 15:06
lolol
silence!.: is what I meant to say. You’re talking about a guy who nearly beat Pastor Maldonado as a rookie. JK, Maldonado out performed him fairly easily.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
28th November 2024, 17:20
Bottas did finish behind Maldonado more often, but performed better when it counted and got the points. Bottas also wasn’t responsible for a single DNF while that can’t be said for Maldonado.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 19:05
Bottas scored in exactly one race. So saying he performed better when it counted it is a bit of a reach. So, more of a fluke than anything that it was 6-4 in points. Obviously Bottas was better than Maldonado, but it’s a sign of just how mediocre Bottas was that he was out qualified most of the time by Maldonado. I actually think PM, in terms of raw pace, may have had the edge. He was just incredibly wild and always doing really stupid things. Bottas was pretty much the opposite. Steady and safe with very ordinary raw pace. He got flattered by driving, other than his rookie season, having one of the best cars on the grid before getting the best car on the grid. People just assumed Bottas was “pretty fast” because they only saw him driving cars where even if he performed poorly he was going to be very far up the order.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th November 2024, 20:46
boat got the call because he was being managed by Toto, just like williams pace dropped off the map after toto divested and suzie left the team.
mick got his ride because merc screwed his dad over, and it was a courtesy, but it seems toto has done enough already, unless ferrari can do something about it, to protect michael’s title record.
F180 (@f180)
28th November 2024, 16:26
If he performs in WEC he will prove us wrong. He was Gunther’s favorite villain to his own insecurities. Toto has been never friend of anybody so I might infer Mick is not fast enough or he lacks funding.
SPArtacus
28th November 2024, 19:11
I’m sorry but performing well in WEC proves absolutely nothing RE: F1. Brendon Hartley won the WEC championship and he was one of the most hopeless F1 drivers in recent history. Many mediocre F1 drivers have seen great success in WEC. Did you see what Vowles said about MSC? Steiner wasn’t the only one to reject him. The whole grid did. I like Mick. He’s just a very average driver.
anon
28th November 2024, 22:24
SPArtacus, those statements should be treated with a pinch of salt, given that Vowles did have other motivations from a personal and team perspective to make those comments.
With regards to Hartley, it is worth considering the context – Red Bull needed to hire somebody in a hurry to replace Sainz, but they also only wanted a driver on a temporary basis to fill the seat until they could find somebody else. Marko has indicated that he saw Hartley’s role at the team as collecting data on Honda’s engine for their development work and to fulfil the requirement for the team to field two drivers in each race – he didn’t have any interest in his long term development, and seems to have even viewed it as not worth putting that much effort into developing a driver that he viewed as nothing more than a temporary stop-gap.
SPArtacus
29th November 2024, 4:54
I was going to add that no other team principles showed any interest or had anything positive to say. People talk about what a burden his name was but the truth is that if he had any exciting potential teams would have jumped at the marketing potential of Schumacher V2 even if the popularity of F1 in the German market has been flat.
We don’t need Vowles. Our eyes told us what we needed to know, which IMO, is that Mick is fully capable of being a solid F1 driver. I’m sure he could develop into a driver somewhere between a Gasly and a Yuki (I rate Yuki higher than many), but teams don’t go out of their way to give a chance to a driver who’s ceiling is being the next Pierre Gasly.
FWIW, Vowles didn’t say he was bad. Just nothing special, which is hard to argue with.