AlphaTauri, Schumacher was first choice for post-Gasly | FP

Mick Schumacher, the loser of the 2022 transfer market

The Formula 1 market has historically been a domino, where the movement of a tile triggers a reaction that could potentially affect many other teams and drivers. On the other hand, there are only 20 places to run, and every year there are those who emerge victorious from this game and those who are defeated. The latter category last year was undoubtedly represented by Mick Schumacher.

AlphaTauri was more than a guess

The German’s seat in 2022 has never seemed solid, due to too fluctuating performances and accidents that have had a huge impact on the Haas budget. Nonetheless, he had ended up in Franz Tost’s sights after the unexpected departure of Pierre Gasly.

Plan A of theAlpha Tauri and of his current team principal was to race with Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda for the third consecutive year. However, the situation linked to Oscar Piastri and Alpine unexpectedly freed up a place in Enstone, taken by the Frenchman himself, who made up an all-transalpine duo with Esteban Ocon. In Faenza, they freed Gasly elegantly, despite him still having a year of contract, opening the cast for the second guide. And Tost’s favourite, as Ralf Schumacher anticipated in an interview, was Mick. Obviously not wanted by Helmut Marko, who preferred to entrust the seat to a driver unrelated to the Ferrari Academy.

“For us, the Schumacher question arose after Pierre’s departure, because for me it was clear that our driver pairing would be made up of Gasly and Tsunoda. Then, suddenly, Pierre was sold to Alpine and this left us with a vacancy. Until Monza it was not absolutely clear who our driver would be. And I logically thought of Schumacher“, these are the words of the Austrian reported by the Germans of Formel1. “Mick is much better than you think from the outside. However, his candidacy was rejected. We are now racing with Nyck de Vries and there is really nothing more to discuss“.