Mick Schumacher, son of Formula One great Michael Schumacher, made headlines on Wednesday, August 31, when news broke out that he will be leaving Ferrari at the end of the 2022 season. The Haas driver is also part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, where he joined in 2019 following his European F3 championship win in the previous year. 

The Schumacher family has a close relationship with Ferrari, where Mick’s father, Michael, raced for a decade and won as many as five Formula One title. His former team principal, Jean Todt still visits Michael twice a month, eight years after he suffered a brain injury and went into a coma.

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Why Mick is leaving Ferrari?

Mick joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2019. At the time of his joining, Ferrari said that it was not because of his father that it decided to hand Mick a Ferrari contract and that he earned the FDA backing on his merit.

“For someone like me who has known him from birth, there’s no doubt that welcoming Mick into Ferrari has a special emotional meaning, but we have chosen him for his talent and the human and professional qualities that have already distinguished him despite his young age,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said at the time.

Mick joined the likes of Callum Ilott, Marcus Armstrong, Enzo Fittipaldi and Robert Scwartzman at Ferrari.

Soon after joining, he got his first test in Formula One in a test in Bahrain in April 2019. He also raced at Alfa Romeo the very next day.

He competed with Prema F2 in 2019 and 2020 with support from Ferrari. He went on to win the title in 2020.

Mick joined Haas later in 2019 and got a seat in 2021. However, he scored his first Formula One points at Silverstone in 2022, before finishing sixth at the Austrian Grand Prix.

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He has failed to impress in the last two years and the support for him has wavered in the period. Ferrari has handed long-term deals to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, which means there is a dearth of opportunities for Mick in the team.

Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have emerged as new Alfa Romeo drivers, who will once again limit Mick’s time on the track.

As things stand right now, Haas is also unlikely to retain him for the 2023 season, meaning he will be left without a team in the next season.