'Steiner would never have dared to treat Mick like that with Michael there'

Toto Wolff has spoken up for his test driver Mick Schumacher. Speaking to Blick the Mercedes team boss states that Schumacher was treated badly during his time at Haas, and that Haas team boss Guenther Steiner would never have dared to do so if Mick's father had been there.

Schumacher found himself without a seat at the end of 2022 when his contract at Haas was not renewed. Mercedes then offered him the position of reserve driver. It is a return of the familiar name in Mercedes' garage: after all, from 2010 to 2012, Mick's father Michael was already driving for the German marque. A year later, Michael suffered a serious skiing accident, after which he never appeared in public again.

Mick Schumacher's time at Haas was by no means a successful period. 2021 was a lost year due to Haas choosing to focus everything on the following year, making 2022 effectively the German's first 'proper' season. That year, however, he failed to keep up with his teammate Kevin Magnussen. Team boss Steiner certainly did not hide his opinion of Schumacher either.

'Steiner would never have dared to treat him like that'

"I am sure that if Michael had been by his side in those two years at Haas, Steiner would never have dared to treat Mick this way," Wolff judged his test driver. "His parents raised him very well."

Wolff stresses in the same interview that Schumacher will indeed step in should any of the regular Mercedes drivers be unable to compete. In 2021, Nyck de Vries was still a reserve driver at Mercedes, but when Lewis Hamilton dropped out with Covid that year, his seat was not filled by De Vries, but by then-Williams driver George Russell. " This time Mick would drive," states Wolff. "If one of our drivers gets Covid or is injured, Mick will be in that Mercedes. Period, end of story."