Haas team boss Günther Steiner was again critical of his ex-pilot Mick Schumacher. “We didn’t achieve what we wanted, I had to make some changes,” said the 57-year-old Austrian in an interview with the British portal “inews”. Schumacher had two years, said the Formula 1 manager. “You can’t beat a dead horse. He wasn’t happy. But I would say he saw it coming.”
Schumacher had to vacate his cockpit at the US racing team after a total of two years. The 23-year-old was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg. Michael Schumacher’s son is now a test and reserve driver at Mercedes and also a reserve driver at McLaren.
The Nextflix documentary “Drive to Survive” shows, among other things, how Steiner curses and criticizes Schumacher’s driving style. After the serious accident in Saudi Arabia, for example, the South Tyrolean quarreled on the phone with team owner Gene Haas: “It’s bad, Gene, I would say between half a million and one million euros (which the accident damage will cost the team, the editors ). We’ve given him a year to study now, and what is he doing? In the second race he damn wrecks his car just because the other one is faster.” Haas replied, “He’s probably getting a little over his head.”
After the accident in Monaco, Haas again quarreled in conversation with Steiner. “It takes talent. You can’t develop talent,” he said. “No, you can’t buy it and you can’t develop it either,” Steiner replied. He was now trying to explain. “In a racing situation, you’re like you’re on drugs,” Steiner said in the interview. Sometimes you say things that you wouldn’t say with a clear head.”
Schumacher himself has meanwhile coped with his relegation and has also taken a liking to his new job. “In a way it feels great for me,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast after last weekend’s season opener race in Bahrain, “because I’m going from a car that was obviously quite difficult to drive into a simulator which is pretty accurate and pretty close to reality.”
That means: Schumacher virtually drives a car that is better than his old Haas. “It was really good to have that feeling and to be able to try a few different things in the simulator. From what the drivers are saying, it’s not that far from reality,” he said.
