The two-year coexistence between Gunther Steiner And Mick Schumacher at Haas she certainly wasn’t particularly happy, especially in the second year. The tensions between the team principal from Bolzano and the young German driver grew from race to race, thanks to the rather abrupt and direct manner of the number one on the American wall and the too many mistakes made by Schumacher, especially in the first part of the year when he had available a car capable of fighting permanently for entry into the points. In the end, as is well known, the paths of the two parted ways, with Steiner who did not renew the contract to the German son of art, preferring to sign the veteran Nico Hulkenberg in his place.
Schumacher, who did not hide his regret for the lack of confirmation, at this point accepted the court of the Mercedes, which offered him the back-up role behind starters Hamilton and Russell. A compromise solution for the #47, useful for staying ‘in the paddock’ while waiting to try and find a seat on the grid for the 2024 season. Steiner himself explained the reasons that led him not to propose him, at the young Mick, of stay with the team but accept a different role. “I didn’t ask him, actually – he confessed to the site GPFans – it’s always difficult for someone, if you’ve ridden for a team, to then be relegated to reserve driver. I don’t think he would have been happy”.
The reasoning made by the Haas boss is quite understandable. There are few precedents of a driver who has agreed to switch from owner to reserve in the same team: the last one was Alex Albon, on track with Red Bull alongside Verstappen in 2020 and ‘downgraded’ to the simulator a year later to make room for Sergio Perez. Steiner, however, did not want to risk implementing what could have appeared as a lack of respect towards Mick Schumacher: “He didn’t tell me anything about it [di restare in squadra come riserva] and I didn’t want to either. It’s a bit cheap to tell him: ‘We won’t let you drive the car, but would you like to be our reserve driver?’” he concluded.
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