Sebastian Vettel suggests McLaren as Mick Schumacher’s next destination

Jamie Woodhouse
Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel high five at a charity football game. Germany, August 2022.

Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel enjoy a close friendship.

Sebastian Vettel hopes that Mick Schumacher will remain on the Formula 1 grid, suggesting McLaren as a good next destination.

With ‘silly season’ now heating up in Formula 1 as teams look to finalise their 2023 line-ups, Schumacher is one of the drivers featuring heavily in the speculation.

The German racer is currently contesting his second season with the Haas team, though could it be his last? There is talk that Haas have put a stop to contract talks with Schumacher in order to assess their options, with his future at the team increasingly in doubt.

As for where Schumacher could go if Haas showed him the door, then Alpine is a possibility, Esteban Ocon having already named Schumacher as his preferred next team-mate.

 

 

Vettel, who has a close friendship with Schumacher, very much wants his compatriot to stay in Formula 1, though McLaren, rather than Alpine, were the team which came to mind.

McLaren have announced that Daniel Ricciardo will leave the team at the end of 2022, a season before his contract was due to expire.

Vettel believes that although Schumacher had a tricky start to the season, and now has not scored points since his P6 in Austria, the Haas VF-22 is no longer a challenger which is capable of such results.

“I wish him a bit more drive for the last races,” said Vettel of Schumacher, as per Sky Sports.

“Unfortunately, nowadays you are quickly judged by the last results and there is a bit of a lack of foresight.

“Mick is someone who is constantly learning, even if a lot of people have stopped learning, will keep learning. That’s an absolute strength.

“He didn’t have the opening start that he would have liked, but then he picked up the momentum. Now you also have to see that the car isn’t as good as it was at the beginning of the year. You don’t finish fifth or sixth with the car anymore, so it’s difficult to stand out there. But he’s doing a good job behind the scenes.

“I wish him to stay in there and get a good car. Maybe at McLaren.”

As for Vettel, he will definitely not be on the 2023 grid, since he has confirmed his retirement from Formula 1 come the end of the current campaign.

Vettel expressed his hate for calling these final races in Formula 1 a ‘farewell tour’ when it was termed to him that way, especially since doing nothing after his Formula 1 career ends will not be a long-term thing.

“I hate that word,” said Vettel of his ‘farewell tour’. “I don’t see it that way.

“I’ll finish my season and then it will continue. Not with more races, but something will happen. That’s why I don’t see it as a farewell tour, but then I’ll be gone.

“I’m looking forward to the races that are coming, then first to nothing, and then I think that sitting around and doing nothing is not possible. I’m not the type for that either.”