Ecclestone’s Schumacher bill of exchange lawsuit rejected despite “question marks” about Raikkonen

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Thursday, July 8, 2021 10:37 AM

Alfa Romeo team boss Fred Vasseur has dismissed the suggestion by former Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone that Mick Schumacher will join the team next season.

Schumacher impresses in his rookie year, although he is largely anonymous with Back-of-the-Grid Haas, although he consistently outperformed his teammate Nikita Mazepin and even qualified for Q2 at the French Grand Prix.

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At Alfa Romeo, Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi have yet to be confirmed for the next season and asked if the talks had started with the Finn in particular, Vasseur replied: “It is far too early to talk about it.

“We work together, we’ve had tons of races in a row in the last two or three months and I think we’ll discuss together for the last part of the season, not before.”

Ecclestone recently suggested that Schumacher’s move to Alfa Romeo was in the pipeline, to which Vasseur commented: “Maybe he’s more aware of it than I am.”

Alfa Romeo keeps drivers “under pressure”

Despite half of the calendar year, more than half of the planned races are still pending.

With the focus on achieving the highest possible result in the constructors’ championship, Vasseur emphasized how important it is to concentrate your drivers on the upcoming battles and not to rush to announce a line-up.

“Keeping the system under pressure is always a good thing,” he said.

“I don’t want to commit myself for long, I don’t want to say ‘Okay guys, you can relax and blabla’. We have to keep everyone under pressure.

“Formula 1 is all about pressure and we have to keep it that way. We don’t know what could happen around us, in the junior series and at the top of the field, etc. Commitment today.

“We know that the grid will be fulfilled by the top, Mr. Wolff will make his own decision and then Mr. Horner and then it will come to us at some point.

“We are in no rush to make such a decision but things are moving and we certainly have a question mark around Kimi, but Antonio is improving.”