Mick Schumacher shut out speculation about his Formula 1 future by refusing to talk about it while Esteban Ocon continued to push for the German to join him at Alpine as the replacement for Fernando Alonso.
Schumacher, son of seven-times F1 world champion Michael, is out of contract with the Ferrari-powered Haas team at the end of the season when he could also leave the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA).
In a nutshell, they don’t believe he has a future in F1 despite paying to develop his career until this point, because if he was a talent of the Charles Leclerc calibre they would not be still considering what to do and suggests the call has been made at Maranello where the cheques are signed.
Joe Saward puts it more bluntly in his latest must-read blog post: “Esteban Ocon says he would like to see Mick Schumacher in the team but that seems pretty unlikely given that Ferrari and Haas have made it clear that they are not interested in him and so it is hard to imagine that Red Bull would be.”
Or Alpine or any other team for that matter.
Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, on Thursday, Schumacher would not indulge questions about his future at Haas or Ferrari: “What is being discussed behind the scenes between us is something I’d rather keep between us.
“That’s contractual matters which I can’t go into detail with,” he answered, suggesting his future plans are off limits, because he has none for now, and will not have until Piastrigate is resolved one way or another.
The F1 rumour mill has gone into overdrive since Spain’s double world champion Alonso announced a month ago that he would be leaving Alpine for Aston Martin at the end of the year.
Alpine announced reserve driver Oscar Piastri as his replacement but the Australian said he would not be racing for them.
McLaren – linked to Piastrigate – have meanwhile announced a split with Daniel Ricciardo, who joined them from Renault, at the end of 2022.
Alpine and McLaren have open seats with several if not dozens of driver options
The game of ‘who goes where?’ has shifted week by week, with the latest rumours linking AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly with the Alpine seat in what would be an all-French lineup. Gasly has a contract with his Red Bull-owned team for 2023, however.
Schumacher and Ricciardo could also be contenders unless Alpine win a contract dispute and can somehow convince Piastri to change his mind.
Ricciardo has been linked to Haas too, although that team have close ties with Ferrari who may also be keen to put their reserve Antonio Giovinazzi into it.
“The team will take the right decisions,” Ocon told reporters ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, adding that Alpine knew his preference. People know that my choice if I had anything to say, would be Mick if he doesn’t have anything lined up for next year.
“He’s a good friend of mine first of all. If I can help with that, that’s no problem. I think he has shown talents in the junior categories as well, he’s been very fast.
“Sometimes in F1, it’s not easy to perform with a car that’s a bit on the back foot. I had that when I started F1. He’s a great guy and he could perform very well if he had a competitive car and at the moment the Alpine is competitive.”
The French team, owned by Renault, are currently fourth in the 2022 F1 constrictors’ championship. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin with additional reporting by GP247)