Guenther Steiner clarifies why there is a need of a F1 contract signing for Mick Schumacher despite having a multi-year deal in place.
The silly season is here, as it generally is at this time of the F1 season. At the top, the principal questions appear to be surrounding Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes. However, further down the grid, there’s Alfa Romeo and Williams at forefront.
There is also Haas, but as per Steiner, it is all sorted at their end. For Nikita Mazepin, there are no questions about his Haas drive in 2022. There have been rumblings a few weeks back surrounding Schumacher, though, despite having a multi-year contract.
Alfa Romeo have been mentioned as a serious enough move should Kimi Raikkonen retire. As said above, Schumacher is on a multi-year contract with Haas and also has a tie in at Ferrari being an academy driver there too – making it a three-way contract.
Those in the know have expressed their own opinions too, where Bernie Ecclestone advised that Schumacher should have gone to Alfa Romeo at the outset as he would have learnt a lot from the Finn, while Jos Verstappen advises that the German should stay at Haas for 2022 due to the tie in with Ferrari and that the will be supported better in 2022.
From Haas’ point of view, they never had any questions about retaining both, but the situation was made curious when both Steiner and Schumacher noted about a contract signing, when already on a multi-year contract from the start of 2021.
When asked to clarify, Steiner noted that it is only some t’s and i’s which needs to be put and that because Ferrari is involved in the discussions, the situation makes it three-way, rather than one-on-one, which is easier for any F1 team.
“There are a few things which just need to be sorted out,” said Steiner to media including FormulaRapida.net. “It’s a three-way contract, obviously, because he’s got one with Ferrari. There need to be a few t’s crossed and a few i’s dotted, and then we will get there. But Mick, he is not trying to say he’s not signed, but there are agreements in place.
“But because of the contract being three-way it’s always more difficult than when it is a straightforward one-to-one contact,” Steiner summed up, clearing what Schumacher actually means by signing of the contract, which likely will be done by summer break.
Purely and simply what is needed is for something to fall into place. All it needs is confirmation of one scenario or rumour and then all other situations can thus follow suit. F1, particularly the silly season is like a jigsaw puzzle. For Schumacher, he has improved bit by bit this season. He has really got to grips with the car which by Steiner’s admittance is not that straightforward a drive.
The story was written by Neil Farrell
Here’s Mick Schumacher on the difference he felt in sprint races of F1 and F2
Here’s the last news on the above topic
