There are still a few free cockpits for the 2025 Formula 1 season. However, Mick Schumacher is not one of the hot stocks on the driver market. The German, who sat in the cockpit at Haas in 2021 and 2022 but had to vacate his seat there and has since only been able to get a reserve driver job at Mercedes in F1, has at best an outsider’s chance. For Jean Todt, these are unfair conditions.
“He is a very talented driver who undoubtedly has what it takes for the racing series,” said the 78-year-old Frenchman to ‘Sport Bild’. As a former FIA president and team boss, Todt is of course an F1 veteran, but at the same time he also has a personal interest in the situation. He is best known as the long-standing Ferrari team boss. Together with Mick’s father Michael Schumacher, he built up one of the most successful teams in World Championship history from 1996 onwards. From 2000 to 2004, Ferrari won all titles under the leadership of the two.
Todt and the Schumacher family have been close friends since their Ferrari days. “It’s no secret that I love the Schumacher family – and therefore Mick too,” Todt says unequivocally. “I want to see him achieve his dreams and I am convinced that he deserves a seat in Formula 1.”
Todt has a high opinion of Mick Schumacher: Too nice for Formula 1?
How highly does Jean Todt rate Schumacher? Very highly, he leaves no room for doubt. Easily on F1 level: “Is he one of the best three or four drivers? I don’t know. But Mick is better than half of the Formula 1 drivers.” An assessment that the active team bosses do not seem to share.
Schumacher’s current employer Mercedes has so far shown no interest in promoting him to the cockpit vacated by Lewis Hamilton in 2025. Mercedes engine customer Williams did not mention his name either. Only the Alpine team, for which Schumacher is currently competing in sports car races, named him as a possible candidate. As one of many on a list.
Todt looks for reasons: “Maybe Mick is too nice. He is a very polite and educated young man with good manners. But in Formula 1 you sometimes have to use your elbows. It won’t be easy for him to come back. Also because he was treated unfairly at Haas back then.”
Todt criticizes Haas: Then the performance suffers immediately
For years, Schumacher’s environment has been persistently criticizing the way in which Haas and especially the then team boss Günther Steiner treated Schumacher. “Of course he had a few accidents, some of which were his own fault, but the pressure that was put on him was unfair,” says Todt. In 2022, Steiner did not shy away from publicly criticizing Schumacher for accidents and performance, including in his book published after the season.
“And I know from my time as team boss that a driver’s performance immediately suffers when he doesn’t feel comfortable,” Todt analyzes. He sees a connection with Schumacher’s origins: “Many people think that his surname is an advantage. But it became a disadvantage. The expectations placed on him were unreasonable – and the car was not competitive. He was never able to show what potential he had.”
Todt does not dare to say whether it would have helped if his father Michael had still been present in the paddock: “We don’t know how things would have turned out. But all Mick needs to become a regular driver again is himself. Because he is good. The team bosses just have to recognize that and have the courage to sign him.”
The number one driver on the market at the moment is without a doubt Carlos Sainz. He is very, very sought after. He doesn’t want to have made up his mind yet, but reveals before his home GP in Spain: All teams with free places have called. More on this: