War between Toto Wolff and Günther Steiner. The team leader of Haas ironically responded to Wolff for his statements on the march of Mick Schumacher of the North American team at the end of 2022.
Last week, Toto Wolff criticized the tone in which the Haas boss referred to Mick Schumacher, current reserve driver for Mercedes. “If Michael had accompanied his son during the two years of Haas, Steiner he wouldn’t have dared to treat Mick like that“, assured Wolff in declarations to ‘Blick.
A week later, Steiner has responded to the head of Mercedes using the same formula. In addition, the Italian has ensured that the pressure of the Schumacher surname has hurt Mick.
“What I have to tell Toto is that if my father was in the paddock, he wouldn’t have dared to tell me what he told me. It has not been easy to manage Mick’s situation because of all the pressure there was over his last name. He has had serious accidents and it has not been easy for the team to manage, there was a lot of damage”, Steiner declared in an interview with ‘Sky Sports’.
In addition, Günther Steiner continues to maintain that, despite the pressure he has received to renew the ‘kaiser’s son’, he made the best decision thinking of the good of the team: “We had to manage the budget differently and it has not been easy “Formula 1 is very tough and if you don’t perform, you don’t deserve to be there. They put pressure on us to keep Mick and they blamed the team, which I don’t think was good for him. Drivers are chosen by the teams, no driver You can choose the car you want to drive.
Two weeks ago, at the presentation of his book, Günther Steiner spoke about the decision not to renew Mick Schumacher’s contract. The Italian assured that the two million dollars The damage caused by the German pilot made its renewal unsustainable. He even made fun of an accident Mick suffered on the 2022 Japanese Grand Prixwhen he crashed returning to the pits after finishing a session.
“On the lap back to the pits! Sure, the track was very wet, but no one else wrecked their car while driving back to the pitsSteiner said.
“We lose a car after five minutes and now we have to build another one. I cannot have a driver that I am not sure he can safely drive a car on a slow lap, ”said the Haas boss justifying the dismissal of the German driver.
That accident cost Haas more than $700,000causing great damage to the team for the 2023 season, as Steiner explains: “it’s fucking ridiculous. How many people could we employ with $700,000? And now I have to find that money.”
