'Every time I am positive about Schumacher, someone else is negative'

Mick Schumacher is currently without a permanent seat in Formula 1. The German driver failed to convince while at Haas and is now a reserve driver at Mercedes. Team boss Toto Wolff regularly speaks positively about his protégé, but he tells Motorsportweek.com that he feels other people are working against Schumacher's return to Formula 1.

Michael Schumacher's son entered Formula 1 with a lot of expectations from the fans. The German had just won the Formula 2 championship, and so Haas decided to give him a chance. However, the results of both Schumacher and teammate Mazepin were disappointing in 2021, and after the latter was replaced by Kevin Magnussen, who performed immediately, people said little good about the now 24-year-old driver.

Toto Wolff hopes Mick will have a permanent seat again from next year. But in doing so, he sees a negative pattern: "I’m not even sure that we can facilitate [a seat] because every time we speak highly of him, somebody feels to say something negative. Wherever I can speak highly and praise Mick, that’s what I’m doing. But in the end, it’s every team’s authority to decide on their drivers, and I very much respect that contracts with the teams."

Wolff then speaks positively about the young Schumacher once more: "I think teams are missing out, to be honest. I think he was burned last year. You need to give and provide an environment that is different to every driver, all different human beings. And whoever gets him will have a very good driver."