Why Schumacher's Haas departure was inescapable

Guenther Steiner has explained the inescapable disadvantage that faced Mick Schumacher as his Haas fate was decided.

Haas has elected to replace 23-year-old Schumacher with veteran driver Nico Hulkenberg for the 2023 season.

Schumacher had shown plenty of improvement during his second season but was unable to turn his performances into consistent scores and when a number of expensive and extremely damaging crashes were added to the mix, the writing was on the wall.

Further to this was Haas' desire to field a more experienced driver, a criteria impossible for Schumacher to fulfil.

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Speaking to GPFans, team principal Steiner said: “I always say, ‘You always can do better when you look in the mirror’. I would never say ‘You could have done better’. You can always do better.

“We need to say, again, why we changed - I explained that very well. What we were looking for, he hasn’t got, because he's too young.

“It's difficult to say, if you would've just done this, that, and the other, he could have stayed.

“What we were looking for, to bring the team up, Nico had the longer past [experience], and you cannot make up time.

“That was the circumstance, not that he wasn't a good enough driver.

“It’s a combination of things. We want to bring the team forward so, therefore, we decided to go with a different type of driver, one with experience. That is why we decided to go the other way.”

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes

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