F1: Alfa Romeo Boss Fred Vasseur Shuts Down Mick Schumacher Rumours

The boss of the Alfa Romeo team, Fredrick Vasseur has denied the fact that Haas driver and Ferrari Driver Academy graduate Mick Schumacher will be joining the Swiss-Italian team next season. It has been rumoured that Kimi Raikkonen may finally be preparing to bid F1 adieu and hence Schumacher could replace the man who once replaced his father at the Ferrari team. Mick Schumacher has impressed in the Haas which is decidedly the slowest car on the F1 grid. He has handily outperformed Nikita Mazepin and has also had a few run-ins with the Russian.

"It is far too early to discuss this. We are working together, we have tonnes of races in a row over the last two or three months and I think we discuss together in the last part of the season, not before," he said.

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Vasseur responded to the comments of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's who claimed that Mick Schumacher could replace 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and get himself up in a better team that's also backed by Ferrari.

Raikkonen and Gionvinazzi have been together at Alfa Romeo since 2019, though there is no guarantee that the two will retain their teams. Raikkonen has seen a major dip in his qualifying performance which has often allowed George Russell in the slower Williams to get ahead of him.

Vasseur has called on the Finn to improve his performance during qualifying.

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"To keep the system under pressure is always a good thing. I don't want to commit for a long time, I don't want to say 'Okay guys, you can relax and blah blah'. We have to keep everybody under pressure," said Vasseur.

"F1 is all about pressure and we have to keep it like this. We don't know what could happen around us, in the junior series and in the top of the field and so on and we don't want to take this kind of commitment today. We know the grid will be fulfilled by the top, Mr Wolff will make his own decision and then Mr Horner and then at one stage, it will come to us. We are not in a rush to make this kind of decision but things are moving and for sure we have a question mark around Kimi, but Antonio is improving," he added.

Schumacher who is the reigning F2 champion was rumoured to be debuting in F1 with Alfa Romeo till the last minute it turned out to be Haas. He was supposed to run in free practice with the Italian team at the Nurburgring last year but the season was cancelled because of bad weather.