Mercedes will assist Mick Schumacher in his quest for a seat in 2024
The son of the seven-time German world champion has lost his regular seat in Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season. However, he will be the reserve driver for Mercedes in 2023, and the German team wants to help him find a place on the grid for the upcoming seasons.
After promising seasons in junior formulas and two seasons in Formula 1 with Haas, the young German driver will spend a year as a reserve driver within the German team. His racing experience at the wheel of the new cars introduced last season will be of great help for his new role within the Mercedes team.
« He has been in Formula 1 for two years, knows the tires, knows the difficulties inherent in the design of the current generation of cars and he will be very useful in the simulator as well as in evaluating the car as a whole, assures Toto Wolff to Autosport.
The new recruit of Mercedes is supported by his new team to regain a spot on the grid in the seasons to come. Toto Wolff is ready to place his new reserve driver in another team if an opportunity arises. The example of Nyck de Vries joining AlphaTauri in 2023 demonstrates the German firm’s willingness to develop its drivers at the highest level of motorsport.
You can see it in his junior career record, he was very good. I think that if you can provide him with a safe environment to further develop, he can be a good race driver in a permanent seat in the future, states the leader of the Mercedes team.
Toto Wolff thus confirms that their work will also be to help Mick Schumacher return as a Formula 1 driver if the opportunity arises, regardless of the team, as they have been able to do with Nyck de Vries as a driver at AlphaTauri this season. « We let Nyck de Vries go so he could pursue his career, and that could be something that could happen to Mick. Whether it’s with our team or letting him go elsewhere, we don’t know at this stage.
