Mika Hakkinen thinks the ‘door is still open’ for one driver to return to Formula 1 in the future yet feels they might have to overcome a ‘damaged’ reputation to secure a seat.
The driver market went into overdrive to set the 20-strong grid for the 2025 season, as eight of the 10 teams changed their line-ups. Just McLaren and Aston Martin chose to retain their drivers from last year, while Alpine, Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Sauber are fielding rookies.
Such a turnover of talent meant many quality drivers were left on the scrap heap, with Zhou Guanyu joining Ferrari as a reserve driver after Audi opted against keeping the Chinese racer at Sauber. Gabriel Bortoleto has joined Nico Hulkenberg in that line-up as one of the rookies.
Valtteri Bottas has returned to Mercedes as a reserve driver as Audi decided against keeping him at Sauber, too. Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen are even among the bigger names who will not be in action in the 2025 Formula 1 season after losing their seats.
Mika Hakkinen thinks Mick Schumacher could return to F1 but his reputation is ‘damaged’
The driver market also overlooked some of the talented racers already on the sidelines as F1 teams shopped around ahead of the 2025 season. That includes Mick Schumacher, who will run another term in the World Endurance Championship with Alpine after debuting in 2024.
READ MORE: Who is Mick Schumacher? All to know about Michael Schumacher’s son
Hakkinen believes the door is still open for Schumacher to return to F1 one day, despite the German failing to secure a seat for this season. It even remains Schumacher’s goal to return to F1 after contesting the 2021 and 2022 campaigns with Haas for his sole years on the grid.
Yet, despite believing the door is ajar for the 25-year-old, Hakkinen also believes the crashes Schumacher had at Haas – especially over the 2022 season – could prove detrimental to his hopes. Haas axed Schumacher due to his crashes, as well, before hiring Hulkenberg in 2023.
“I think he still has a chance to return to Formula 1. The door is still open,” Hakkinen noted, via Motorsport-Total. “He has experience in Formula 1 and he has experience from various racing classes, and he is young. These are all good things, these are all positive factors.
“But Formula 1 is an extremely demanding environment today. If you make three, four, five mistakes and damage the car, it costs the team a fortune.
“And that’s exactly what the teams don’t like. They don’t want to spend money on repairing a broken car… I think Mick had a few accidents that damaged his career.”
Mick Schumacher’s 2022 Monaco GP and Saudi Arabian GP crashes haunt his comeback hopes
Haas cut their losses on Schumacher after the 2022 season as, despite scoring all five of his career points that year, he wrote off two cars with big crashes at the Monaco Grand Prix and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. At those rounds, the German split the chassis of his VF-22 in half.
Schumacher destroyed his car on Lap 27 of 77 at the 2022 Monaco GP when he lost the rear of his VF-22 flying through the Swimming Pool chicane and span into the barriers. He sat out the Saudi Arabian GP after a 33G crash in qualifying, having lost control on the Turn 10 kerb.
Those incidents have since helped to prevent Schumacher from returning to Formula 1, with his career now spent in WEC. Williams considered hiring the son of Michael Schumacher last year to replace Logan Sargeant, yet James Vowles had reservations over hiring Schumacher.
Yet what should also be remembered is Schumacher only retired at five of his 44 Grand Prix entries, starting 43, for Haas. The aforementioned Monaco GP was even only one of his two in 2022 alongside that year’s Canadian Grand Prix after retiring three times as a rookie in F1.
