The German racing legend Hans-Joachim Stuck is convinced that Mick Schumacher will find his way back to a regular cockpit in Formula 1 in the medium term. “Strietzel” Stuck congratulated the son of record world champion Michael Schumacher on his upcoming station as a reserve and test driver at Mercedes.
“Apart from a regular cockpit, he could not have gotten a better place than the test driver role at Mercedes,” said the 71-year-old in an interview with “Eurosport“.
After weeks of speculation about his further sporting future, the Mercedes works team announced in December that it would start the Formula 1 year 2023 with Mick Schumacher as the third driver behind regular drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
The former Formula 1 driver Stuck does not rate the end of the US team Haas as too tragic: “Mick Schumacher was certainly beaten at Haas. But fortunately that has now been resolved. […] The path Mick is now on is a great thing for Motorsport Germany.”
Stuck convinced of Schumacher’s future in Formula 1
Stuck himself drove in over 70 races in the premier class of motorsport in the 1970s and firmly believes that Schumacher will again have a permanent place in the F1 circus as a regular driver in the not too distant future.
“Schumacher will prove in test drives how fast and good he is. I assume that he will be in the cockpit more quickly than we suspect, because a failure of one of the regular drivers can always happen. And that gives hope when he once a chance in a race or just convincing in the test drives,” stressed the Bavarian, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1986 and 1987.
Stuck also described the 23-year-old as “a strong beacon of hope” with whom German motorsport fans “will still experience a lot” in the future.