Schumacher, Giovinazzi to share Ferrari role
Mick Schumacher will jointly serve as Ferrari’s Formula 1 reserve driver this year, balancing the role with his
Haas racing commitments.
Schumacher will be on standby to deputise for either Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz Jr for 11 of this year’s 23 races, meaning he would be pulled out of the Haas cockpit if required. Exalfa Romeo F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi will be the nominated reserve for the remaining 12 races.
Schumacher will enter his second F1 season in 2022 with Haas. The 2020 Formula 2 champion and son of seventime F1 title winner Michael Schumacher, who won five of his crowns with Ferrari in the 2000s, graduated to F1 last year as a member of the
Ferrari Driver Academy.
“It will be his second season [in F1], he is a Ferrari driver, coming from the Ferrari academy,” said Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto. “I’m very happy that he can be part of the team as a reserve driver whenever that will be necessary, but hopefully not. Those [new-for-2022] cars will be really a lot different to the current one for driving style, and I think it will be important to have one driver that knows those cars as a reserve driver.
“I can still count on Antonio because he has proved to be a good driver. Antonio will have a full programme of simulator to bring him up to speed in terms of 2022 driving style.”
Ferrari will begin the 2022 season eager to build on its recovery to third place in the constructors’ championship last year, and seek to end its longest winless run since 1993.
Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies explained there had been “zero compromise” on extending development of its
2021 car despite the fight against Mclaren due to the importance of this year’s regulations.
“We made very clear from very early on, we took the decision to switch to 2022,” said Mekies. “We were hoping at the time, because we are quite distant from Mclaren, which is early on in the season, we were hoping that we would be able to fight eventually for the third place.”
Sainz managed to beat Leclerc in the standings, and scored four of Ferrari’s five podiums last year. Binotto said that the two drivers would enter 2022 with equal status. “I don’t think that we need at this stage, and certainly we will not have a policy, of number one or number two,” he said. “We will simply discuss it based on positions on track.”