Toto Wolff believes Haas team principal Gunther Steiner would have treated Mick Schumacher differently had his dad been around.
Michael Schumacher, a seven-time Formula 1 world champion, has been suffering from health problems ever since a skiing accident in 2013 and has not been to an F1 race since then.
Mick had to fight his way to F1 without his dad’s presence at the track but he was axed from Haas at the end of 2022 after two insignificant years in favour of Nico Hulkenberg.
“I can only say that his parents did nothing wrong in raising him,” Mercedes team principal Wolff told the German newspaper, Blick.
“And I affirm that if Michael had accompanied his son during the two years of Haas, Steiner would not have dared to treat Mick like this.”
New role for Mick Schumacher in F1 2023
Mick Schumacher is now a reserve driver for Mercedes after Ferrari opted not to keep him in their team following his release from Haas.
He is yet to take to the wheel of a proper Mercedes F1 car since his move to the Brackley-based outfit but Wolff does have plans to build up an old car for him to get some laps in.
“We are trying to have an old car ready for him as soon as possible,” Wolff later said about his team’s reserve driver.
Schumacher’s downfall at Haas came when Kevin Magnussen replaced Nikita Mazepin at the 11th hour ahead of the 2022 campaign.
The Dane was immediately quick and proved on a number of occasions that he was a class above the German although Schumacher did put in some good performances at times but lacked consistency.
Another reason Steiner opted to let him leave the team was due to the significant damage bills he racked up after big crashes in Saudi Arabia and Monaco.
