Franz Tost, current team principal of Scuderia AlphaTauri, believes that Ferrari Driver Academy member Mick Schumacher should not be thinking of a possible move to Ferrari for the following years and should instead focus on his development with Haas.
Mick Schumacher is in his second Formula 1 season, but this year he has also received the responsabilities of being a Ferrari reserve driver, sharing the tasks with Antonio Giovinazzi, and would be a first choice for Ferrari if either Charles Leclerc or Carlos Sainz would not be able to take part in a Formula 1 Grand Prix this season. In 2021, Mick Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut racing for one of the Scuderia’s customer teams, Haas, but faced a difficult time having to constantly battle in the back of the grid in a very poor car. Most of the times, the young German driver could only challenger his teammate Nikita Mazepin, but this season Mick is finding himself in the thick of the midfieldfight, as Haas can rely on a much-improved VF-22 car.
While he is looking for his first Formula 1 points, Mick Schumacher’s main target for this season is to continue his improvement as a driver with the hope of eventually being given a race seat by the team for whom his father, Michael, spearheaded a golden era two decades ago.
However, this seems unlikely to happen in the near future, given the strong performances of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The Monegasque driver has a contract available until 2024, while the Spaniard is close to extending his current deal with Ferrari for another two seasons.
AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost was something of a mentor to Michael Schumacher and his brother Ralf in the early stages of their Formula 1 careers. The Austrian former racing driver is urging Mick to remain patient and to focus on getting on improving his skills by constantly learning and gathering experience. Having Kevin Magnussen as a teammate should represent a real challenge for Mick, who has the opportunity of learning and also testing his abilities against a driver with more than 120 starts in Formula 1:
“He has to drive somewhere else for another three years,” Franz Tost said, as reported by F1-Insider.com – “Formula 1 is extremely complicated today. A driver needs at least three years of learning to drive at the top level. A George Russell or a Charles Leclerc also needed that time. He first has to beat his team-mate Kevin Magnussen consistently at Haas and try to achieve success with Haas. That’s his job now and nothing else.” – he added.
Formula Formula 1 driver Marc Surer, meanwhile, seems ho have some reservations about Mick Schumacher’s natural speed and feels that maybe a more “analytical” approach could be his best chance of success:
“Mick has proved how capable he is of learning through his successes in Formula 3 and Formula 2, each of which he won in his second season. In Formula 1 today, that’s one of the most important things. You can see everything in the telemetry data today, from steering wheel movement to braking point to the position of the accelerator on the team-mate. Mick will now study this data carefully. You don’t have to be a highflyer to be successful. Niki Lauda and Nico Rosberg are good examples. Neither had the basic speed like Alain Prost in Lauda’s case or Lewis Hamilton in Rosberg’s. Nevertheless, they were able to beat their team-mates once and win the World Championship. Natural talent alone is not enough either. The example of Jean Alesi shows that. He was considered a highflyer when he came to Formula 1. But in the end he could only win one race in his career. Mick has to be aware of his analytical skills and follow the path of Lauda and Rosberg. That way, he can recommend himself to Ferrari in the next few years.” – Marc Surer concluded.
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