F1 News: Toto Wolff Slams Haas After Mick Schumacher Controversy - "He Was Burned Last Year"

Mercedes team Boss Toto Wolff has high praise for Mick Schumacher but the chances of him racing a Formula 1 car in 2024 are low.

Mick Schumacher and Haas team parted ways at the end of 2022 and since then, the German racer has been employed with Mercedes as its reserve driver. 

While the 24-year-old looks forward to his return to Formula 1 as a full-time racing driver, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says the chances of Mick racing in 2024 are bleak.

However, the Mercedes team is more than pleased with Mick, who received high praise from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for his role with the simulator at the Spanish Grand Prix. 

The team worked hard past midnight to ensure the system was perfectly set up for the race. The extra efforts helped the team achieve a place on the podium for the second time. 

While Wolff has been realistic about his opinion of Mick's return, he believes the young racer is highly deserving of getting back on the track. He stated:

“I’m not even sure that we can facilitate (a seat), because every time we speak highly of him, somebody feels to say something negative.

Wherever I can speak highly and praise Mick, that’s what I’m doing.

But in the end, it’s every team’s authority to decide on their drivers, and I very much respect that contracts with the teams, whenever you have to take our junior driver, you have to take our reserve driver, because when I was at Williams, I also wanted to have my own choice."

Commenting further, Wolff spoke about Mick's condition last year when he raced for Haas.

“I think teams are missing out, to be honest. I think he was burned last year.

You need to give and provide an environment that is different to every driver, all different human beings. And whoever gets him will have a very good pilot.”

Talking about Mick's contribution to the team and the fact that he's ready to race, Wolff didn't miss out on an opportunity to praise him further. 

“It’s great to have a mature, successful and mature Formula 1 driver supporting us.

In the sim with his feedback, that is a tremendous advantage, in some of the European grand prix, having him in the simulator overnight and providing data for the Saturday is a super advantage for us.

And on the other side is that, if George or Lewis were to have fish poisoning – well, Lewis can’t have fish poisoning, it would be avocado poisoning – then we know we have a super guy that would drive the car well.

And as much as I like the situation for the benefit of the team, I would every day of the week prefer that Mick sits in a cockpit and actually races.”

Wolff has been confident about Mick's performance and understands well, the kind of platform he requires to climb the ladder. Could we witness Mick Schumacher racing for Mercedes in the future?