“There wasn’t really a reason to change anything”: Romain Grosjean disagrees with Haas’ decision to oust Mick Schumacher from the team
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Upholding the legacy of arguably the greatest racing family in the world, Mick Schumacher entered Formula 1 after attaining the Championship victory in F2 in 2020. The German debuted with the Haas F1 Racing Team alongside Nikita Mazepin, and showed consistent improvement in his first year with the American team. In 2022, Haas ousted Nikita Mazepin and severed ties with their sponsor Uralkali amidst the Ukraine-Russia war, and Schumacher got a new teammate in Kevin Magnussen.
Now, Magnussen entered the 2022 season of Formula 1 after spending two years away from the pinnacle of motorsports in a blazing form. He scored a P5 finish in the season opener at Bahrain, surprising one and all. And throughout the recently-concluded season, he managed to outscore Mick Schumacher on most occasions, thus raising questions in the minds of the executives at the Haas headquarters about the young German’s racing abilities.
And after a lot of contemplation and mulling over, Haas finally decided to refrain from renewing their contract with Mick Schumacher, and instead, they went for Nico Hulkenberg. This has rendered Mick without any regular racing seat at an F1 team for the 2023 season, and he has spoken out in protest, saying that he believes his improvement was showing and there was no need to have him sit out for one year. Now, former Haas racer Romain Grosjean has come to Mick’s support as he expressed his disagreement with Haas’ decision as well.
Romain Grosjean stays wary of how Nico Hulkenberg might perform for Haas in 2023
At the end of the F1 2019 season, Haas did a complete upheaval as they removed both their drivers (Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean) and took up two rookies–Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. While Magnussen found his way back to the team following Mazepin’s dismissal, Grosjean decided to pursue a career in IndyCar once he saw that a return to Formula 1 would not be possible. And now he can see that Mick Schumacher has suffered the same fate at Haas as he had had all those years ago.
As he does not agree with Haas’ decision to hastily oust Mick Schumacher to take up Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean said, “Mick Schumacher had a good end to the season and there wasn’t really a reason to change anything. But the team just wanted another driver.”
While speaking on his hopes for Nico Hulkenberg in F1 2023 now that he is making a comeback to regular racing after almost three years, Romain Grosjean said, “Let’s see what he can achieve at Haas. But like I said, that’s not the decision I would have made.”
While Mick Schumacher might not have a regular racing seat for the next season, his options are far from being limited. It is rumored that he has received offers to join other teams like Mercedes as reserve driver. Now, it remains to be seen if the young driver takes up Mercedes on their offer or if he decides to go someplace else.
Read More: Sebastian Vettel to not appear on F1 TV shows: “I’m not going to be a TV pundit.”
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Riddhi Mondal
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