Steiner on Schumacher: You can’t beat a dead horse. Haas boss comments back on young driver’s sacking

Mick Schumacher lost his Formula 1 seat when he was replaced by the more experienced Nico Hülkenberg at Haas for the 2023 season. Now the boss of the American team has revealed that it was not easy to say goodbye to young Mick. However, he literally said that you simply can’t beat a dead horse. George Russell, though, thinks Schumacher will be back in the saddle.

Schumacher came to Formula One in 2021 when Haas chose him. The young German driver spent two seasons with the American team. The first one is perhaps not even worth commenting on, as both he and his then teammate Nikita Mazepin drove not so much an F1 car as, in all fairness, a rolling tractor.

But at first, significant improvement didn’t come in the following year either. For in 2022, the Queen of Motorsport entered a whole new era in terms of technical rules, and Haas directed all its efforts into these monoposts.

In addition, Schumacher scored two horrific accidents in Saudi Arabia and Monaco, scoring his first points at Silverstone, then again in Austria at the Red Bull Ring.

Yes, in the second half of the season Mick managed to beat teammate Kevin Magnussen, but it wasn’t enough to stay in Haas.

American team boss Guenther Steiner had to make a decision. And in the end, he actually said goodbye to the young driver and called in another veteran, Nico Hülkenberg, to join Magnussen.

It wasn’t easy. But you can’t beat a dead horse

Steiner admitted recently that he was not at all happy about the driver change. But in terms of performance, he said he unfortunately had to make some changes.

“I just sat down with him and explained that we needed to move the team forward with an experienced driver. It’s part of our job. It’s not a pleasant thing. I don’t enjoy it, but you just have to be professional about it,” Steiner told iNews.

“Dealing with Schumacher is not easy, as you can imagine. Anyway, he had two years to do it. We didn’t get where we wanted to go and I had to make some changes. You can’t beat a dead horse,” he added.

Schumacher is currently working as a reserve driver for Mercedes and, by mutual agreement, for McLaren. And it is the German team’s driver George Russell who believes that the son of the famous legend has what it takes to earn a permanent place in F1.

“It’s still early days, of course, but Mick has integrated himself really well into the team. He’s been really helpful, helping out where he can,” Russell told Racing News 365.

“During testing, he was often on the track just watching and analysing how the cars look and behave, passing that on to the engineers and doing the necessary work on the simulator. He was a real help to us. I hope he gets another chance in Formula 1 next year. If he keeps working, he will definitely get that opportunity again,” he concluded.

F1, iNews, Racing News 365