Despite Ferrari Backing, Wolff Opens Mercedes’ Doors to Mick Schumacher for Possible F1 Stint

Once the 2021 F1 season gets underway, all eyes will be on Mick Schumacher. The young German with perhaps the most famous name in F1 will be racing for Haas and will want to make an immediate impression on fans.

Sure, at the American team, Mick won’t have a lot of chances to show his talent because the team will be contending at the back of the grid.

However, as George Russell has shown at Williams, if Schumacher can get his car into Q2, he’ll have a lot of top teams wanting to sign him sooner rather than later.

In fact, according to Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff, Mick may even have a shot at driving for the German team in the future. However, Wolff doesn’t intend to ramp up the pressure on the rookie who will have a lot of eyes on him.

While in conversation with RTL, he said (translated via Google), “That’s exactly the pressure I don’t want to apply to Mick. Now if I give the headline ‘Mick will be at Mercedes someday’, it doesn’t make sense at this point.

“Mick definitely has the potential to race in the best car and why not in a Mercedes in the future? But he needs to focus on his business. You have to give him time. If a driver only has experience he will not make big mistakes and reflect this on his speed.”

Ferrari may not take too kindly to Wolff’s statements. After all, Mick is part of the Scuderia’s driver program and even tested out their 2018 car in Fiorano recently.

Mercedes boss Wolff talks about Mick Schumacher’s personality

At Haas, Schumacher will be partnered by Nikita Mazepin, who already has a gained a lot of media attention for the wrong reasons.

It’ll be interesting to see what the relationship between the two teammates will be. But Wolff doesn’t believe it’ll be a cause for concern.

He said, “I see Mick as someone who speaks on the track and avoids politics in the team. Neither of them need to fight off the track.

“I see Mick as a confident – but not overdone – young driver who knows what he can do and knows he needs his time. Now it’s all about taking the pressure off his shoulders and letting him ride. Haas is a team he can learn from.”

The German driver has earned his ticket to F1 having won the F2 and F3 championships. But is known to be quite the slow starter in his debut season. Will his rookie in F1 be the same? Or will he change that narrative? We’ll soon find out.

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