Gene Haas on Sunday, at a NASCAR event in Las Vegas, revealed that the Haas F1 team has spoken to other drivers about 2023.
According to the sole founder of Haas Automation, Mick Schumacher must score points over the next four races to retain his F1 seat for the 2023 campaign.
Speaking to the Associated Press, he said: “We’re just waiting. We need Mick to bring some points and we’re trying to give him as much time as possible to see what he can do.”
“If he wants to stay with us, he’s got to show us that he can score some more points. That’s what we are waiting for.”
Mick Schumacher is currently 16th in the drivers’ championship standings out of 20 full-time F1 drivers and has one fewer race than the rest of the field this season.
The German driver missed the season’s second race after a crash in qualifying in Saudi Arabia necessitated a brief hospital stay.
Danish teammate to Mick Schumacher, Kevin Magnussen returned to Haas this season after being axed in 2021 and competing in American racing for a year, has 22 points and is 14th in the standings.
The Haas F1 team had a promising start to the current campaign but went on a sudden decline in performance.
Gene Haas believes Haas’ decline in performance is due to closer time margins between the leaders and the backfield.
“We started off the year with resounding success and I think the middle season wasn’t too good, and we just seem to fall back into our usual way of running,” Haas told the AP.
“We’ve just got to get out of that. And Formula One is so tough. When I started there were 6 seconds between the leaders and the backend and you had a 107% rule.
“Now we’re all within 2 seconds, so it’s gotten a lot tougher and there are no bad teams anymore.”
Further comments from the Haas team owner suggested the endurance of the team management has been put to the test by Schumacher’s crashes.
“In this sport, being kind of a rookie driver, the sport just doesn’t allow it — it’s just too expensive,” Haas said.
“If you make any mistakes in driver selection, or strategy, or tire selection, it is costing you millions of dollars.
“I think Mick has got a lot of potentials, but you know he costs a fortune and he’s wrecked a lot of cars that have cost us a lot of money that we just don’t have.
“Now, if you bring us some points, and you are (Max) Verstappen and you wreck cars, we’ll deal with it. But when you are in the back and you wreck cars, that’s very difficult.”
When asked if Schumacher has the remaining four races to convince Haas of his talent, the team owner responded: “Well, if he wins the next one, he’s in. Somewhere in between, there is a grey area.”
