Mercedes team boss envisions 'Nyck de Vries route' with Schumacher
General
- GPblog.com
Toto Wolff is still very much in favour of the arrival of Mick Schumacher. The young German, who will act as Mercedes' reserve driver in 2023, came over this winter from Haas F1 's team where there was no longer a place for him. It is possible Schumacher will go the'Nyck de Vries route', Wolff reveals.
At Haas F1, Schumacher was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg. The 23-year-old driver did not stay unemployed for long, as Mercedes was soon on the doorstep. The German racing stable was looking for a new test and reserve driver following Nyck de Vries' departure for AlphaTauri.
De Vries had been very closely involved with Mercedes for the past two years and was present in the garage almost every weekend. The same will be true for Schumacher and he too will participate in the technical briefings. "The way we prepared Nyck for a new step in his career can also work with Mick. Whether that will happen in our team or whether we will let him go at some point, we of course don't know at the moment," Wolff said at, among others Auto, Motor und Sport.
Schumacher in Formula 1
There is a chance that Schumacher will still get some mileage in the coming period. Although Schumacher may not take part in the teams' two mandatory VT1s for rookies (as De Vries was allowed to do in 2022), there are plenty of other tests scheduled. Moreover, there is a chance that Schumacher may turn up at Mercedes customer teams if they are looking for a temporary replacement. After all, there are few available drivers with so much experience in Formula 1.
McLaren has Alex Palou as a reserve driver, while Aston Martin and Felipe Drugovich have joined forces. However, both drivers have very few F1 kilometres behind them, so it remains to be seen whether these two teams will not prefer to go for Schumacher when it really counts. Palou will not travel much with the Formula 1 circus anyway because of his full-time schedule in IndyCar. Of Drugovich, we do not know how often he will travel with him to Grands Prix. For Wililams, they do not currently have a third driver assigned.
With Mercedes top driver James Vowles' move to Williams, a seat may be in the offing at the Grove-based team in the future. Logan Sargeant will get the chance in 2023, but should the Williams driver fall through the ice, Schumacher will be the person killed off. After all, the ties between Mercedes and Williams are only getting stronger.