Haas ’not far’ from ending Schumacher rumours

Ralf Schumacher isn’t sure if he would advise his nephew Mick to stay at Haas for 2022 or risk a move to another Ferrari-linked team.

There are rumours that Ferrari may be wanting to push its junior driver up the Formula 1 grid by relocating him to Alfa Romeo for 2022.

However, Ferrari recently commissioned a new building at Maranello dedicated to its technical program in support of customer team Haas.

The small American outfit effectively wrote off 2021 in order to focus exclusively on the new rules for next year and beyond.

"Is the team hoping to get a Ferrari copy in 2022?" wondered veteran F1 journalist Roger Benoit, writing in Blick.

"What is clear is that for Haas and Ferrari, the full focus is on the new cars," he added.

When asked to comment on the Schumacher rumours, Haas boss Gunther Steiner indicated that the 22-year-old son of Michael Schumacher is staying.

"The silly season has just started," he said.

"We still have to look at a few things, but we are not far from confirming our drivers for 2022."

As for Ralf, whose own son David won a Formula 3 support race in Austria at the weekend, he isn’t sure how to advise his nephew.

"It’s much too early to judge," he told Sky Deutschland.

"Alfa is a little better than Haas at the moment. But the question is which team is developing, and what.

"A lot will change at Haas in the next year, but Alfa has been at this level for many years. So I don’t know what my advice is at the moment."