Toto Wolff alleged Guenther Steiner would have treated Mick Schumacher differently had Michael Schumacher been accompanying his son to races; Steiner opens up about managing Mick Schumacher at Haas before he was dropped for Nico Hulkenberg at the end of last season
Thursday 20 April 2023 17:13, UK
Guenther Steiner has responded to Toto Wolff's accusation that he would have treated Mick Schumacher differently at Haas had his legendary father Michael been in the F1 paddock.
Schumacher was dropped by Haas at the end of last season after two years with the team, with veteran driver Nico Hulkenberg taking his place.
In his new book, Surviving to Drive: A Year Inside Formula 1, Haas team principal Steiner details how Schumacher cost the team in excess of $2m (£1.6m) from crashes in Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Japan.
Writing about the Monaco crash, Steiner suggested the German "seems unable to appreciate the gravity of the situation" and then said he "cannot have a driver who I am not confident can take a car around safely on a slow lap" following the crash in Suzuka at the end of a wet Friday practice session.
Steiner's frustrations with the 24-year-old were also heard on the latest series of Netflix's Drive to Survive.
Schumacher is now reserve driver to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at Mercedes and Toto Wolff told Swiss newspaper Blick earlier this month the German would step up if either driver was unavailable for a race weekend.
And he alleged Haas would have treated Schumacher differently had seven-time world champion Michael, who suffered a brain injury in a 2013 skiing accident, been with his son.
Wolff said: "I'm looking out for the little one. I can only say that his parents did nothing wrong in bringing him up. And I claim that if Michael had accompanied his son during the two Haas years, Steiner would not have dared to treat Mick like that!"
Offered a response to Wolff's comments by Sky Sports, Steiner said: "What I have to say is, if my father would have been around Toto wouldn't have said the things he said."
Expanding on his relationship with Mick Schumacher, Steiner said: "It wasn't easy, it wasn't easy to manage that one because there was a lot of pressure from outside because of his last name.
"Then obviously he had the big crashes, which was very difficult to manage as well for the team because it was big damage. Which again you need to re-focus your budget on different things, as now with the budget cap you need to invest money in performance.
"It wasn't easy, but racing is not easy and coming up for young guys in Formula 1 is very tough and nobody deserves to be in Formula 1, you need to perform."
In his book, Steiner frequently refers to criticism he received from the German media about his handling of Schumacher and the 58-year-old feels that had an impact on his driver's performance.
"I think they tried to put pressure on to keep Mick and blame all the team and I don't think that was good for Mick," Steiner told the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
"In the end, they didn't actively try to divide us but that's what they did. I think he didn't feel good when he heard the things talked about me and I didn't feel good coming from their side. In the end, they tried to divide us.
"This is not good for Mick, even if they try to do this because in the end the team decides who is going to drive the car and not the driver which car he is driving. There is no point to upset a team about a driver because you want to say 'Guenther didn't take care enough of Mick and how I do things'.
"In the end, he scored points. Nobody says 'that's because Guenther managed Mick like this', nobody came with that and I don't expect that like I don't expect to be blamed if he crashes. The driver has to do that himself to get the points and not to crash.
"The responsibility of the team is to give the driver the best car they can, and we always did that, and be fair to both drivers that they both get the same level of car, we always did that.
"And if we didn't do that then we explained, for example, that an upgrade, only one part was available and you share it. We were very open about it, we never hid anything or gave an advantage to one or the other driver because that is a principle of my life - you need to treat people fairly to get the best out of it.
"In the end, who wants the drivers to perform at their best? Me and the team so why would I try to sabotage any of our drivers?
"In the end, this is part of a team principal life that some people don't like what you're doing. I don't really care if somebody doesn't like what I do. Just say it - it doesn't do anything, I will not change because I don't feel I need to change because of somebody who has not walked in the team."
Steiner also revealed he has had next to no interaction with Schumacher since he left the team.
"I haven't seen Mick yet this year. I think I saw him at Testing and said hello but since then I didn't see him because he is now at the other side of the paddock where the champions are. I didn't run into him at the three races so far.
"I have no problems saying hello, I don't know how he will react but I think we are all grown up.
"In the end, we had two years together, we tried to do something, we gave Mick an opportunity which I think needs to be respected. Haas F1 gave him the opportunity and we all need to move on. Formula 1 is quite a small circus so there is no point to fight or not say hello to anybody."
Surviving to Drive: A Year Inside Formula 1 is published in the UK on April 20
The Formula 1 season resumes with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from April 28-30, with the first Sprint weekend of 2023 shown in full live on Sky Sports F1. Watch Saturday's Sprint at 2:30pm and Sunday's race at 12pm. Get Sky Sports
