Sebastian Vettel still reserves hope of seeing Mick Schumacher clinch an F1 seat in 2024
Sebastian Vettel has given his take on what future holds for Mick Schumacher as far as his F1 contract is concerned.
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Mick Schumacher, the able son of the legendary F1 racer Michael Schumacher, stepped into Formula 1 as an F2 Champion with a Haas contract in 2021. At that time, many were convinced that the German youngster would be the next big thing in the king class of motorsports, but unfortunately, Guenther Steiner had other plans. The American team dropped Mick at the end of ’22 and they went for Nico Hulkenberg–a racer with enormous experience and way more success on the tracks than Mick Schumacher has ever seen.
Sidelined for the entirety of the 2023 season, the junior Schumacher took up the job as a reserve driver for Mercedes. Toto Wolff commended the young German’s approach, and both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell thanked Mick for his contributions towards improving the W14’s performance. But despite his stellar inputs for one of the top three teams in the grid, Mick Schumacher is still left scrounging for a regular driving seat at any of the F1 squads. And as of now, his chances of landing such a contract look slim–but Sebastian Vettel does not want to give up hope yet.
Vettel has acted as a father figure for the prodigal son of his mentor Michael Schumacher for long. And now, while Seb has retired from the sport, he still cheers for Mick from the background as he has recently claimed at a SkySports interview, “But there is always some possibility. I think it’s important that things continue in a certain way for him next year. That he continues to work on the second chance. From a German perspective it’s essential, it’s not just the biggest young talent, but perhaps even the only one at the moment.”
Mick Schumacher’s options are still open as three F1 teams are left to finalise their 2024 line-ups
As of now, there have been no reports linking Mick Schumacher to any particular F1 team. But should he choose to go for a 2024 comeback, there are three squads that are still open for discussion. AlphaTauri took up Daniel Ricciardo after giving the boot to Nyck deVries mid-season for the rest of the season. For now, Ricciardo is injured and will be in recovery for a considerable amount of time.
And Williams’ Logan Sargeant is under immense pressure as the American has not garnered any impressive results since his debut earlier this year. Lastly, Alfa Romeo has not yet renewed Zhou Guanyu’s contract but they will probably be signing Theo Pourchaire for the seat beside Valtteri Bottas for the next season. With all these options ahead of Mick Schumacher, it must be said that there is reason in Sebastian Vettel’s predictions for the young German. But still, whatever be Mick’s fate, it should be announced within the next few weeks as the F1 season is rapidly nearing its end within a couple of months.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)