Schumacher tipped for Haas seat
Formula 2 championship leader Mick Schumacher has been tipped to claim a Formula 1 seat with Haas in 2021 after the team announced last week a complete change of driver line-up for next year.
Current Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both confirmed last Thursday that they will be leaving the team at the end of the season, and could be replaced by an all-rookie pairing. Schumacher, a protege of Haas engine supplier Ferrari, is widely expected to get one of the seats. The son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher leads the F2 standings with four races remaining, and already has a superlicence required to race in F1.
Schumacher had looked on course to join Alfa Romeo for 2021, and was set to feature in practice for the Eifel Grand Prix with the team earlier this month before the session was cancelled due to poor weather. But it looks increasingly likely that fellow Ferrari junior Antonio Giovinazzi will remain with the team for a third season after an impressive run of recent form. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen is also expected to stay put for next year.
It is anticipated that Schumacher would be partnered at Haas by Nikita Mazepin. The Russian sits sixth in the F2 points standings, and requires a top-seven finish to secure a superlicence for next year.
Mazepin would arrive with considerable backing through his father, Dmitry, who owns Russian fertiliser giant Uralkali. Mazepin Sr tried to buy Force India upon its collapse in 2018 prior to its takeover by Lawrence Stroll’s Racing Point consortium. His son has tested
F1 cars for Force India and Mercedes in the past, and is also understood to have completed an extensive private F1 test programme in old Mercedes cars as part of his preparation for a grand prix drive.
A timeline on an announcement from Haas remains unclear, with team principal Gunther Steiner saying that no final decision has yet been made.
Grosjean joined Haas for its debut season in 2016, and was joined by Magnussen one year later. The duo led the team to fifth place in the constructors’ championship in 2018, but a slump towards the back of the field in 2019 has continued into this year.
“As much as we’ve had ups and downs in our relationships, in the end you don’t stay with people for this long time, four and five years, if you don’t like them,” said Steiner. “So it’s always difficult to do these things, but in the end I need to look after the team in general. And they both were very understanding.
“I mean, they were not happy. Who would be?
But they had a good understanding, and they know that we gave them a good run at it as well.”
But Grosjean said Steiner had told him when informing him of the decision that it was down to “financial reasons”, pointing to the arrival of at least one driver bringing budget to the team for 2021. “I fully understand,” said Grosjean. “I know it’s been a tough year with COVID in a lot of industries or companies that suffer from it. The team is going a different path, and I wish them luck and the best for the future.”
With few seats still available for 2021, it looks unlikely that either Grosjean or Magnussen will be on the F1 grid next year. Grosjean has been hinting
for some time that he was exploring options outside of F1 for the future, professing an interest in both Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, while Magnussen has his eyes set on Indycar.
“Indycar has been something that I’ve been interested in always,” said Magnussen. “My dad was an Indycar driver back in the 1990s, and I’ve been to Indycar races with him as a small child. I just always thought it was super-cool, and I would love to have a go in that some time.”
A Schumacher/mazepin line-up would also close off another option for high-profile free agents Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg for 2021, although both have been linked to seats elsewhere recently.
Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner confirmed at last weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix that the team would look outside its own driver pool if it were to drop Alexander Albon for 2021, making Perez or Hulkenberg viable candidates to partner Max Verstappen next year.
Perez has also been linked with a move to Williams in place of Mercedes junior George Russell if new team owner Dorilton Capital opted to change the initial plan to run an unchanged line-up. Perez would bring considerable financial backing to the team alongside Nicholas Latifi, who also has a raft of sponsors.
But Russell said he has “no concerns” about next year, saying the speculation had been “fed from the Perez camp” and that he anticipated clarity from Williams about his future by the end of this week.