Mick Schumacher and the farewell to Haas: Gunther Steiner’s backstory.

A farewell to Formula 1 that might not even have come.

Mick Schumacher will no longer be behind the wheel of Haas in 2023 after serving as the U.S. team’s starting driver in 2021 and 2022. There has been much talk about the team’s decision not to confirm him for next season, and in the meantime team principal Gunther Steiner revealed that the matter could also have been resolved differently.

“Absolutely we have considered the confirmation of Mick Schumacher in the team for 2023,” Steiner in fact admitted to ‘motorsportweek.com.’ In the last season his improvements were important, and this is obvious to everyone. It doesn’t need to be said by me. And the reason we needed all that time to make a decision is precisely that.”

Steiner then denied that a decision was made at Haas to give up Mick Schumacher with the 2022 season largely underway: “We did not decide before the summer, as some people believe. We needed to determine what was best for the team. He however definitely did well in several races. If it had been his instead of Kevin Magnussen’s pole position at Interlagos, nothing would have changed.”