F1 News: Ralph Schumacher Slams Haas Boss Amid Mick's Contract War
Mick Schumacher's contract with Haas has been up in the air for a while. Many thought we would hear ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix whether Schumacher will keep his seat on the team for the 2023 season or not. However, we found out that a decision has been made, but it will not be announced until tomorrow.
Now, Schumacher's uncle and former racing driver, Ralf Schumacher, has given his thoughts on the situation during an interview with Sky Deutschland. Ralf said:
"I see it as difficult for Haas to choose Mick. Otherwise, they would have done it long ago. I think the interaction in the team and the openness of Guenther Steiner - I'll call it that politely - doesn't necessarily speak positively.
This behaviour cannot be explained with normal standards. It almost has to be something personal."
Ralf went on to slam Haas team principal Guenther Steiner. He said:
"I believe that Guenther Steiner cannot deal with the fact that someone else is the focus at Haas. He's very, very happy to be the one front and centre."
Team owner, Gene Haas, has previously spoken about the situation with Schumacher and the considerations the team are taking into account when deciding whether to extend his contract for next year alongside current team mate Kevin Magnussen. Haas said:
"I think Mick has got a lot of potential, but you know he costs a fortune and he’s wrecked a lot of cars that have cost us a lot of money that we just don’t have,
"Now, if you bring us some points, and you are [Max] Verstappen [winning races] and you wreck cars, we’ll deal with it.
"But when you are in the back and you wreck cars, that’s very difficult.
He continued:
"If he wins the next [race] he’s in [for 2023]. Somewhere in between, there is a grey area.
"We started off the year with resounding success [including fifth for Magnussen in Bahrain] and I think the middle season wasn’t too good, and we just seem to fall back into our usual way of running.
"We’ve got to get out of that, but Formula 1 is so tough.
We will see that the team announce tomorrow about the German driver's future.