Haas: We always gave Mick Schumacher the best we could and were always fair

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has responded to the criticism leveled against the American team regarding their treatment of Mick Schumacher. He believes the team gave their best to Schumacher and were always fair in dealing with the German driver.

After Haas decided to replace Schumacher with Nico Hulkenberg, they were criticized for the way they handled the young German during the season.

Mick Schumacher did not have a great start to the season where he was involved in some very heavy crashes. He found his feet in the second half of the season but by the looks of it, the damage had already been done as Haas signed Nico Hulkenberg to drive alongside Kevin Magnussen.

📰: After making the necessary adjustments with Haas, Mick Schumacher revealed that issues with the setup of his VF-22 affected his performance early in the season. 1/2
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Responding to speculation that the young German did not have the complete support of the team, Steiner told RacingNews365.com that:

"I think we did a good job in that one. I think, as I always said, we treat every driver fair, and we do the best we can. Sometimes it wasn't good enough from the team, I'm fully standing behind that, that it was not him not performing. Sometimes we had issues [where we were] not good enough, but we need to fix that one. I think we always gave him the best we could and we're always fair. We had equality with the drivers last year [and] this year, there was always no issue with that one."

He told AMuS that, "We got lost with the setup at the beginning, but then we caught on relatively quickly," "After the Canadian GP, I had a car that suited me, and we continuously improved, At some point, Kevin also jumped over to my setup." 2/2

Steiner reveals the logic behind replacing Mick Schumacher

Speaking about replacing Mick Schumacher and signing Nico Hulkenberg, Steiner pointed out that the team was still very young and needed to grow. In Hulkenberg, the team found a driver that can take the team forward. He said:

"We are the youngest team and the last two years we lost a little bit of our momentum, you know, when the pandemic came and so on. So it’s how can we bring the team back where we want to be like in ’18, and maybe ’19, which was better than the last two years. You know Mick did a good job but we need to carry him and we need somebody to carry us a little bit."

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Haas as well as Mick Schumacher. While the team will be looking to progress from the P8 result this season, the German will be hoping to secure a seat for the 2024 F1 season.