Schumacher: Steiner speaks out | thejudge13thejudge13

“In the end, we both played with open cards on the table” claims Mick Schumacher’s former Formula 1 team boss who describes the moment Mick and Haas parted ways at the end of last year. The decision was preceded by a long stand-off which Günther Steiner appears to have forgotten about when speaking out about the young German.

In an exclusive interview with RTL/ntv, Haas team boss Günther Steiner talked about his relationship with the German racing driver and assessed Schumacher’s prospects in Formula 1.

Hulkenberg. Steiner did not want to overstate the separation from the German.

“It just happens in life. You break up often and that’s why it doesn’t mean that you break up in a quarrel,” the Haas team boss revealed.

“In the end, we both played with open cards and that’s why I think we still talk to each other and greet each other,” Steiner concluded.

The openess of the situation at Haas does appear to be at odds with what happened in the latter half of the F1 season with Steiner seemingly already lining up Nico Hulkenberg to replace Mick.

Although this account of ‘giving Mick a chance’ corresponds to the rhetoric of Steiner, behind the scenes he and Gene had been working on a plan B for quite some time. More or less involuntarily, Schumacher’s successor, Nico Hülkenberg, of all people, revealed discussions had started in the summer when interviewed by Sky Germany in Abu Dhabi.

“It came about after the summer, during the summer break…” admitted the German.

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