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Mick Schumacher has confirmed reports he was only informed of his Haas exit on the eve of the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, with rumours adding that the conversation took place in a hotel lobby.
Scoring just twice in his two years with Haas, Schumacher was dogged by rumours throughout his second season that it could be his final year. Those were fueled by team boss Guenther Steiner.
The Italian made no qualms about the fact that he was looking at his options for the 2022 championship as the German’s repair bill outweighed his points-scoring finishes.
Mick Schumacher: Everything happened rather late
After months of speculation, Haas announced on the eve of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that they would not be renewing the German’s contract and had instead signed former F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Schumacher wasn’t given much of a warning before the press release was published.
“Obviously, everything happened rather late,” he told the official F1 website.
“I got told the day before the last weekend started that I was not going to be on the grid in 2023. So, it’s a bit late to go and look for other places which obviously isn’t great.
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“But yeah, we took that option up which Mercedes had given us earlier that year that if nothing would be opening up, I would have a space here, so that’s what we did and here we are now.”
Left without any options for a Formula 1 race seat, the now for Schumacher involved the former Formula 2 champion following in his father Michael Schumacher’s footsteps as he joined Mercedes.
Although in Schumacher’s case it was a reserve driver, not a race driver.
“I went to Brackley in 2010, maybe,” he recalled. “The first time I really remember was really in 2014 but it was for a sim session at the time.
“Obviously to return there now was obviously in some ways very interesting. To get to see how a big team like Mercedes operates in Formula 1 is something very special.
“But also, to understand now how all the procedures worked having worked one year with them it’s been very mind opening and interesting for me to be part of this.”
