SAO PAULO — Haas will announce next week whether Mick Schumacher is staying or going, the Formula One team’s boss Guenther Steiner said.
Schumacher, the 23-year-old son of Ferrari great and seven times world champion Michael, is out of contract at the end of the season which ends in Abu Dhabi on November 20 and risks being without a drive next year.
The German’s predicament was not helped by qualifying for Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint race when he ended up last while team mate Kevin Magnussen took a surprise pole position.
“Expect the announcement sometime next week,” Steiner told reporters, amid increasing speculation the team’s decision has been made.
Experienced compatriot Nico Hulkenberg has been touted as a likely replacement.
“I’m not telling you a day because then everybody will be waiting for that day. It will be coming next week,” said Steiner according to Reuters.
Schumacher has scored 12 points to Magnussen’s 24 this season but the German’s learning curve has been costly for a US-owned team competing with one of the smallest budgets in the sport.
Steiner said he felt “almost sorry for him” after the qualifying.
“He did a good job in Q1 (the first phase) before he went out. The first two runs were very good but then with the dry tyres he just couldn’t get the feeling,” he said.
“He lost a little bit of (tyre) temperature when some people overtook him on his out lap and then couldn’t get the temperature back in and then lost a little bit of confidence, started to slide.
“That is what is happening. It just didn’t work for him yesterday. But otherwise the whole season we all know he had very good moments and very bad moments. It’s an up and down.”
Steiner said the 2020 Formula Two champion had become more consistent after a tough start to the season up against Magnussen, a far quicker and more experienced team mate than Russian Nikita Mazepin last year.
Kevin Magnussen took a sensational first Formula One pole position, in his 100th race for the Haas team, after a weather-affected qualifying for the sprint race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Dane was on top when George Russell spun and beached his Mercedes into the gravel at Interlagos, bringing out the red flags to halt the session with eight minutes remaining and rain falling.
The team had timed it right, Magnussen first out of the pit lane with the track still dry and no chance of anyone else then going faster than his lap of one minute and 11.674 seconds.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, his second world title already won but with records to set in the last two rounds of the season, will join the Dane on the front row while Russell qualified third despite his error.
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