Gene Haas described Mick Schumacher as a ‘dead man walking’ after German’s Monaco GP crash

At the end of last season, Mick Schumacher lost his seat at Haas. Now, he’ll have to wait the upcoming season out and see (or make efforts to) if he can return in 2024. For 2023, he will serve as Mercedes’ (and McLaren’s) reserve driver, with an outside chance of competing in a race, depending on other drivers’ unavailability. The confirmation of him being let go came rather late and was confirmed just one day before the Abu Dhabi GP weekend. He was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg.

The presumable ‘final nail in the coffin’ was seen as taking place at the Brazilian GP, the weekend before. His teammate, Kevin Magnussen, took pole position for the weekend, while Schumacher was dead last. Guenther Steiner later said that ‘nothing would have changed’ even if the German had been the one to take pole position. Haas’ team principal also stated multiple times that Schumacher was not let go because of doing a bad job – they went with Hulkenberg because he was a better fit.

The ‘nothing would have changed’ comment makes you wonder: What would have saved him? How long ago was the decision taken? There was already talk in the early parts of the season that Schumacher could be on the way out from Haas. He found a bit of a rhythm in the middle of the season, with two fantastic races in Silverstone and Austria. But before that, he had been in two very expensive crashes in Jeddah qualifying (which meant he was unable to participate in the race) and during the Monaco GP.

Many felt that Schumacher had ‘dropped the ball’ in F1 after the Monaco crash, and even on the Haas side, it seems his fate was sealed. Drive to Survive, which hits Netflix on the 24th, contains a segment concerning this in an episode called ‘Like Father, Like Son?’. As uncovered by Metro Sport, in a phone call with Steiner after the Monaco GP, team owner Gene Haas described Schumacher as a ‘dead man walking’. Monaco was only the 7th race of the season, but that is quite an ominous statement.

Read More: Mick Schumacher ‘not too worried’ about F1 future as there’s already been ‘interest’ in his services

Guenther Steiner described Mick Schumacher as going so slow ‘he doesn’t need to brake’

Apart from Jeddah and Monaco, Mick Schumacher also crashed in the first practice session of the Japanese GP after ‘aquaplaning’. This meant that Haas had to switch to the spare chassis. In Miami, he had made contact with Sebastian Vettel while both of them were running in the points. Not ideal. Some time after the race in Suzuka, Gene Haas told the Associated Press that Schumacher has ‘potential’ but had also been in many expensive crashes – that you can’t afford to do as a rookie, especially when ‘you are in the back’.

Haas also said that Schumacher had to score points to stay with them. He did not score any in the last three races of the season – didn’t score any at all apart from two race weekends. In one of the many fruitless weekends, Guenther Steiner made a comment about him that also features in Drive to Survive. During the Azerbaijan GP, when Schumacher put to the team that he was worried about overheating the brakes, Steiner said: ‘He’s going so f***ing slow he doesn’t need to brake.’

Now that time is past for him: Schumacher’s full focus will be on his reserve driver role with Mercedes. He will try to put himself in the best possible position to facilitate a return to Formula 1 in 2024. If that happens, then he could show Haas what they may, or may not, be missing.

In case you missed it:

• “If I were stuck in Mick’s shoes”, George Russell takes a new role as Mick Schumacher’s mentor 
• Ralf Schumacher: Mick a ‘great’ asset to Mercedes and McLaren

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