Difficult decision: Watching was hard: Mick Schumacher is leaving Formula 1

The highest praise from the current boss doesn’t help anymore; after many setbacks, Mick Schumacher is leaving Formula 1 completely after this season. Two years as a regular driver for Haas, two years as a test and replacement driver: the record of the 25-year-old son of record world champion Michael Schumacher in the premier class of motorsport is manageable, and a comeback at some point is practically impossible.

The two years with the German Mercedes team would have undoubtedly made him a more experienced racing driver, said Mick Schumacher in a statement from the Silver Arrows on Thursday: “But it’s hard to watch these cars in the race without sitting in the cockpit yourself.”

Second year in the World Endurance Championship

He will be behind the wheel in the Endurance World Championship next year. He is entering his second season with the French manufacturer Alpine. The hope of returning to a regular Formula 1 cockpit was dashed, but the WEC is now the new path in Mick Schumacher’s career. “We’ve had a great first year together, and I’m committed to ensuring the program’s performance is even better in year two,” said Mick Schumacher.

43 Grand Prix starts, twelve points, best placement: sixth place. These are the numbers that will probably remain from his short Formula 1 career. Under the then team boss Günther Steiner, he was unable to assert himself at Haas in 2021 and 2022. He went through a difficult time in a car that was far too weak, and was also marked by accidents that he caused. The class that he had shown in the junior series Formula 2 and Formula 3 with respective overall victories only rarely flashed.

“Driver of incredible caliber”

Mercedes, for which father Michael once celebrated a three-year comeback in Formula 1 starting in 2010, at least gave Mick Schumacher a contract as a test and replacement driver. Team boss Toto Wolff also often publicly praised Mick Schumacher’s qualities and now said about his upcoming departure: “Both in his time in Formula 1 and this year in his performances in the World Endurance Championship, we have seen that he is a driver of incredible caliber who deserves to compete in the best championships.”

However, Mick Schumacher was not an option to succeed Lewis Hamilton at the Silver Arrows after this season. Instead, Wolff, who can easily imagine Valtteri Bottas returning as a replacement driver, is relying on the 18-year-old Italian Formula 1 newcomer Kimi Antonelli. All other possibilities had also been shattered this season. Even at Alpine. After a comparison test, the French decided on Australian rookie Jack Doohan.

Cockpits for Colapinto and Bortoleto – but not for Schumacher

Mercedes partner Williams didn’t even get a short-term assignment when the team parted ways with Logan Sargeant during the season. The Argentinian Franco Colapinto is driving there instead and is even considered a candidate for Red Bull next season alongside world champion Max Verstappen. In the designated second German works team Audi, they will be relying on the Brazilian Formula 1 debutant Gabriel Bortoleto alongside Mick Schumacher’s compatriot Nico Hülkenberg from next year. There were also words of praise there before the announcement.

But they guaranteed Mick Schumacher, whose father has not appeared in public since the skiing accident at the end of 2013 and the severe traumatic brain injury he suffered, no cockpit in Formula 1. “I want to focus 100 percent on this again Concentrate on racing,” Mick Schumacher now explained: “Racing because that gives me the feeling that I love so much.”