24 February 2023 , 16:45
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Mick Schumacher was branded a "dead man walking" just weeks into the 2022 Formula 1 season by Gene Haas, the owner of his team.
The German's future on the grid became one of the big topics of silly season last year, which really kicked into gear after the summer break. But the new series of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, released by Netflix on Friday, shows that there were doubts about Schumacher at the very top of the team from a much earlier point.
Kevin Magnussen was able to score big points on his second 'debut' with the team in Bahrain, but Schumacher was outside the top 10. And his pointless streak continued in the opening rounds of the season, compounded by heavy and expensive crashes in Monaco and, first, Saudi Arabia.
Netflix cameras were rolling for most of those events. Guenther Steiner's reaction to the Saudi Arabia crash while speaking to the team owner is very much on brand: "F***ing hell," says the team principal, before Haas replies: "Schumacher's car looked pretty bad when they hauled it up'."
Steiner then responds: "It is, f***. Between half a million and a million [dollars' worth of damage], I would say. F***ing hell. We give him a year to learn, what does he do on the second day? He f***ing destroys the car, just because the other guy is faster."
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Speaking directly to the Netflix cameras, Steiner adds: "It is frustrating because there was no need for it. Nobody is just hanging around here in F1, having a good time. You need to perform." Schumacher admits himself that it was "maybe not the smartest thing".
Schumacher's expensive crashes left team owner Gene Haas very unimpressed (Getty Images)A few weeks later, in Baku, Steiner is speaking with another team member when he suggests that Schumacher is "in over his head". He says: "Gene doesn’t hate anything more than someone crashing a car," and the reply from a colleague talks about "getting rid" of the driver.
Schumacher did eventually find some joy, scoring back-to-back points at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring – including duels with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. But that was it for the rest of the year in terms of tangible results.
In the end it wasn't enough to convince the team and Schumacher was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg. The much more experienced German will hope to push Haas further up the grid this year after their improved eighth-placed finish in 2022 despite their more junior driver's troubles.